Which to use
“villain” and “villainy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,624
- “villain” frequency rank
- #47,406
- “villainy” frequency rank
- 56030
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | villain | villainy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vile, wicked person. | Evil or wicked character or behaviour. |
Letter map: villain vs villainy
Shared letters muted; letters that set villain and villainy apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. villain runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against villainy's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on villain vs villainy
villain and villainy are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “villain” sits inside “villainy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56030, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
villain is recorded at frequency rank #8,624, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɪl.ən/. villainy is at rank #47,406, tagged as anoun.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 56030, this pair ranks #129,211 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of villain vs villainy
Shared letters: ailnv. Private to "villain": -. Private to "villainy": y.
"villain" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "villainy" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "villain" and "villainy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "villain" or "villainy"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "villain" and "villainy".
- Full dictionary entry for "villain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "villainy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #129,211 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "villain" and "villainy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "villain vs violin". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #129,211 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.