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villainy

[vil-uh-nee] / ˈvɪl ə ni /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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"Hathaway is a model of steely self-possession masking vulnerability; Pattinson bites into his character's villainy with gusto."

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

His Othello is hounded into a betrayal of his probity and hard-earned honor not just by the villainy of Iago but by the demons of his past.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

The villainy isn’t coordinated, but more like a feedback loop of evil.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026

Red herrings pop up and disappear, a climactic series of revelations indicates hidden villainy, and every detail feels ho-hum.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026

These men have been caught halfway through their transformation: ordinary bodies but with powerful, supernatural heads, deformed in the direction of heroism, or villainy.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

History is all intrigues and executions, beautiful ineffectual ladies and poisoning queens, love-stories and villainies, steeped in Dickensian melodrama and embroidered with the theatrical effects of a Bleak House or an Oliver Twist.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 25, 2015

In Mr Merriman’s retelling, the Paris Commune is a reminder that the worst villainies are possible once you have dehumanised your opponent.

From Economist ● Nov. 27, 2014

“There has been a transference of villainies from the principals to the agents.”

From Salon ● Dec. 22, 2013

There was little religion but much ritual, which enraged churchmen and engaged conspiracy theorists, who still flood the Web with Masonic villainies, but it posed no problem for the Deists, who frequented the Continental Congress.

From Time Magazine Archive

He asked: “Do not the corruptions and villainies of men eat your flesh and consume your spirits?”

From Ireland in the Days of Dean Swift Irish Tracts, 1720 to 1734 by J. Bowles (John Bowles) Daly




Vocabulary lists containing villainy


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