as in brute
a mean, evil, or unprincipled person
only a heartless villain would kidnap a baby for ransom
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of villain
By Patrick Clark, Bloomberg The time of the corporate landlord as America’s housing villain was supposed to be over.
—
Bloomberg, Mercury News, 8 Jan. 2026
Kathryn Hahn isn’t quite done being a Disney villain.
—Matt Donnelly, Variety, 8 Jan. 2026
Greg’s just not that interesting a villain, and whatever Season 3 was doing with him didn’t satisfactorily pay off or, at worst, felt like an extended setup for a Season 4.
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 7 Jan. 2026
While Scarlett Johansson was recently eyeing the villain role of Mother Gothel, she’s fallen off the project, leaving that role still open.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 7 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for villain
Recent Examples of Synonyms for villain
Noun
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For much of his career, Skarsgård has gravitated toward characters who weaponize physical presence — Vikings, tech titans and mythic brutes whose power is immediately legible.—
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As usual, Lang plays the brute’s Heart of Darkness–esque descent into madness with gleeful relish.—
Noun
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In it, Oldham costumes up as a shaggy woodland monster, which—after a more nimble inhabitant seemingly swaps into the outfit—proceeds to engage a human in an elaborate dance routine.—
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That mentality has fueled a monster debut season for Porter County Conference leader Kouts (12-3, 4-1).—
Noun
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The first thing to do is to reduce the damage to the United States, the inflow of guns and criminals and immigrants and drugs into the United States, the destabilizing of a key part of the Western Hemisphere.—
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Also, place freezes with ChexSystems and the National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange to stop criminals from opening bank accounts, phone lines, or utility services in his name.—
Noun
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Nobody wants to deal with our old devil, even if the new one comes with an encroaching open threat actively bubbling in the Caribbean and Latin America at large.—
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But Bourdain, with his devil-be-damned demeanor, somehow makes the dish feel approachable — even though the two chefs’ recipes are pretty similar.—
Noun
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Brutal, savage, and gory, this movie follows a home invasion on Christmas Eve where a mysterious woman (Béatrice Dalle) tries to steal an unborn baby right out of another woman's (Alysson Paradis) pregnant belly.—
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Eleonora wearing a snake, Nicole’s Reputation hair from earlier in the season, the use of the word savage constantly and from out of nowhere.—
Noun
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Boardman imposed a sentence of 97 months, citing Roske’s mental health and concerns about incarceration conditions and his status as a first-time criminal offender.—
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Since 2013, the law has allowed juvenile offenders serving life without parole to petition to have their sentence recalled and to be resentenced.—
Noun
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Going back to the origins of everyone's favorite scoundrel, Han Solo, may have felt like a no-brainer — especially with Kasdan on board as co-writer — but the film never felt like an essential addition to the rapidly expanding canon.—
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Giannis, a gentleman even in this era of scoundrels, likely wants to do right by the Bucks, too.—
Noun
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The hardest part of scaling this 5,200 foot beast?—
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Orion was getting the best of the beast.—
Cite this Entry
“Villain.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/villain. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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