villainy
villainy noun: evil or wicked character or behaviour.
Noun
villainy (countable and uncountable, plural villainies)
- Evil or wicked character or behaviour.
- Mos Eisley spaceport- you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.1977, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
- A wicked or treacherous act.
- He drew from his pocket a pistol, which, devoid of principle or honour, with an assassin-like assault, he instantly aimed at the breast of Lord Deloraine, but which, in the struggle that ensued, as if by retributive justice, went off unexpectedly and lodged its contents in the body of...1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 292–293
- Ill-treatment, indignity, degrading or shameful treatment of someone.
- Disgrace, ignominy.
- The state of being a villein or serf, and by extension servitude or low estate in life.
- Boorishness, rudeness, bad cultivation or manners.
Adjective
villainy (comparative more villainy, superlative most villainy)
- Characteristic of a villain.
- We are all villainy— very villainy, as I am a Christian man.1839, Robert Folkestone Williams, The Youth of Shakspeare
- Apparently, in both domestic and foreign movies, you can't get too villainy to displease an audience.1993, William Froug, Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade, page 51
- Synonyms:
- villainly, villainous
villainy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
villainy in Hindi
- villainy, wickedness
- बदमाशी badmāśī
- villainy
- पाखंड pākhaṇḍ
villainy in Tamil
- villainy, knavery, perfidy
- கள்ளம் kaḷḷam
villainy in Urdu
- بدمعاشی, کمینگی, سفلہ پن, شر, شرارت, ذلالت
villainy in Malayalam
- അധമസ്വഭാവം, നീചമായ പെരുമാറ്റം, അശിഷ്ടത
More languagesFewer languages
- villainy in Kannada
- ಆಗಡಿಗತನ, ಕೇಡಿತನ, ಕೇಡಿಗತನ, ಕೆಟ್ಟತನ
Synonyms of villainy
- villainly
- villainous
- atrociousness
- awfulness
- badness
- corruption
- corruptness
- criminality
- dacoity
- depravity
16 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of villainy
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | villainies |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more villainy |
| superlative | most villainy |
Origin of villainy
From Middle English vileinie, vileynye, from Anglo-Norman vilenie, from Old French vilanie.
From villain + -y.
Words formed from villainy
Questions about villainy
- What does villainy mean?
- Villainy means evil or wicked character or behaviour.
- What is villainy in Hindi?
- Villainy in Hindi is बदमाशी (badmāśī), पाखंड (pākhaṇḍ). See Villainy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is villainy?
- Villainy can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of villainy?
- The plural of villainy is villainies.
Words near villainy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: villainy (page history and authors); पाखंड (Hindi) (page history and authors); கள்ளம் (Tamil) (page history and authors); villainy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); villainy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); villainy (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-villainy.wav.
Cite this entry: “villainy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/villainy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.