Word.ws English Dictionary

villainsplain

villainsplain verb: of a villain in a fictional work, to explain the details of one's evil plans or actions, or the motivations that drive them.

Verb

villainsplain (third-person singular simple present villainsplains, present participle villainsplaining, simple past and past participle villainsplained)

  1. (informal) Of a villain in a fictional work, to explain the details of one's evil plans or actions, or the motivations that drive them.
    • Are you done villainsplaining?2019 April 5, Steven Katz, “In the Woods”, in Kate Dennis, director, The Tick, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Overkill (Scott Speiser)
    • There’s a moment when John Sill gazes at the “Mona Lisa,” which he has stolen from the Louvre. The painting, he villainsplains to Kitu, is artistically unimpressive but nevertheless “a work of genius. Marketing genius.”2022 November 1, Molly Young, “In a New Novel, Percival Everett Riffs Gleefully on 007”, in The New York Times

Forms of villainsplain

third-person singular presentvillainsplains
present participlevillainsplaining
past participlevillainsplained
pastvillainsplained

Origin of villainsplain

From villain + -splain.

Questions about villainsplain

What does villainsplain mean?
Villainsplain means of a villain in a fictional work, to explain the details of one's evil plans or actions, or the motivations that drive them.
What part of speech is villainsplain?
Villainsplain is a verb.
What is the past tense of villainsplain?
The past tense of villainsplain is villainsplained.

Words near villainsplain in the dictionary

  1. villainously
  2. villainousness
  3. villainry
  4. villains
  5. villains of the week
  6. villainsplain
  7. villainsplained
  8. villainsplaining
  9. villainsplains
  10. villainy
  11. Villair de Quart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: villainsplain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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