arch-villainnoun [ C ]
/ˌɑːtʃˈˈvɪl.ən//ˌɑːrtʃˈˈvɪl.ən/an especially bad villain (= an evil character in a story, film, etc.):
Christopher Reeve as Superman was awesome in his showdown with the arch-villain Lex Luthor.
More examples
- The book's arch-villain, billionaire Nicolas Creel, explains: "I didn't bring you here for a lecture. I brought you here to die."
- Arthur Conan Doyle described his arch-villain Moriarty as 'the Napoleon of crime'.
- Kate Millett castigated him as the arch-villain chauvinist in her 1970 feminist polemic, Sexual Politics.
- The politician can be seen as the arch-villain of the piece.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Morally wrong and evil
- abhorrent
- amoral
- anomie
- be rotten to the core idiom
- black hat
- canker
- darkly
- evildoer
- go to the bad idiom
- godless
- hanky-panky
- heinous
- immoral
- impure
- seamy
- seedy
- shocking
- shockingly
- sinful
- wickedness
See more results »
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Literature