What is another word for villainous?

Pronunciation: [vˈɪlənəs] (IPA)

Villainous is a word that refers to a person or action that is evil, cruel, immoral or unscrupulous. We all know that the use of synonyms can make writing more interesting and captivating. Hence, instead of using the same word repeatedly, one can use synonyms to describe villainous personalities or actions. Synonyms that can be used in place of the word villainous include wicked, malevolent, nefarious, sinister, malicious, depraved, diabolical, immoral, and evil. People who act villainously are often referred to as scoundrels, rogues, knaves, antagonists, or malefactors. These synonyms add color and depth to writing and help to create a more vivid picture for readers.

What are the hypernyms for Villainous?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

What are the opposite words for villainous?

The antonyms for the word "villainous" are virtuous, honorable, good, righteous and ethical. Virtuous means morally excellent, honorable means worthy of honor and respect, good means morally right or acceptable, righteous means morally right and just, and ethical means adhering to moral principles. These words are opposite in meaning to villainous, which means wicked or criminal. Using antonyms in your writing can help you create a more nuanced and complex characterization of your characters. By using antonyms for villainous, you can highlight the positive qualities and virtues of your characters.

Usage examples for Villainous

She had perfect taste about everything except herself, and as soon as it touched her it was villainous.
"Fortitude"
Hugh Walpole
But the more certain she was of his villainous possibilities the more placid she became.
"Fortitude"
Hugh Walpole
Archy's absurd speculations and traffic in villainous drugs seemed microscopic compared with the profits to be made by a good business man.
"Command"
William McFee

Famous quotes with Villainous

  • I've been trying to take this journey over the last four years of getting away from playing manipulative and villainous characters and playing characters that are affected by what happens to them as opposed to unaffected.
    Kevin Spacey
  • When we reflect upon the brutal vices of these salt-water bandits, pirates as shameful as any whom the sea has borne, or recoil from their villainous destruction and cruel deeds, we must also remember the discipline, the fortitude, the comradeship and martial virtues which made them at this period beyond all challenge the most formidable and daring race in the world.
    Winston Churchill
  • The US is the most wretchedly villainous state of all times. Anyone aware of global issues can easily imagine how vast the hatred for the United States - a corrupted, swollen, paralysing and suffocating political entity - must be across the Third World - and among the thinking minority of the West too.
    Pentti Linkola
  • Moved by a generous eagerness to turn men's attention to the power which dwelt in circumstances, Mr. Owen devised the instructive phrase, that "man's character was formed him and not him." He used the unforgettable inference that "man is the creature of circumstances." The school of material improvers believed they could put in permanent force right circumstances. The great dogma was their charter of encouragement. To those who hated without thought It seemed a restrictive doctrine to be asked to admit that there were extenuating circumstances in the career of every rascal. To the clergy with whom censure was a profession, and who held that all sin was wilful, man being represented as the "creature of circumstances," appeared a denial of moral responsibility. When they were asked to direct hatred against error, and pity the erring — who had inherited so base a fortune of incapacity and condition — they were wroth exceedingly, and said it would be making a compromise with sin. The idea of the philosopher of circumstances was that the very murderer in his last cell had been born with a staple in his soul, to which the villainous conditions of his life had attached an unseen chain, which had drawn him to the gallows, and that the rope which was to hang him was but the visible part. Legislators since that day have come to admit that punishment is justifiable only as far as it has preventive influence. To use the great words of Hobbes, "Punishment regardeth not the past, only the future."
    George Holyoake
  • But that is the way of the place: down our many twisting corridors, one encounters story after story, some heroic, some villainous, some true, some false, some funny, some tragic, and all of them combining to form the mystical, undefinable entity we call . Not exactly the building, not exactly the faculty or the students or the alumni — more than all those things but also less, a paradox, an order, a mystery, a monster, an utter joy.
    Stephen L. Carter

Related words: dark protagonist, evil protagonist, protagonist meaning, tropes of a villainous protagonist, hero vs protagonist, antagonist and protagonist, what is a villainous protagonist, how to make a villainous protagonist, how to be a villainous protagonist

Questions:

  • What is a villainous protagonist?
  • How do you make a hero or a villain in your story?
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