baddy

Meanings

1. 1nouncountableinformal

   A villain in a film, story, or game; an evil character who opposes the hero.

   Grammar: Countable, so you can say 'a baddy' or 'the baddies'; mostly used in British English.

   Patterns

   • the baddy in a film
   • play the baddy

   The kids always cheer when the baddy finally loses.

   In this cartoon the baddy has a huge black hat.

   He loves playing the baddy because the audience boos him.

2. 2nouncountableinformal

   A bad or dishonest person, especially one seen as an opponent in a real dispute.

   Grammar: Informal and often slightly playful; in serious writing use 'wrongdoer' or 'criminal'.

   Patterns

   • the baddies in a conflict
   • one of the baddies

   In every spy story there are goodies and baddies.

   The newspaper divided everyone into goodies and baddies.

   Politicians like to cast their rivals as the baddies.

Word forms

Common combinations

the goodies and the baddies

Children's stories usually separate the goodies and the baddies clearly.

play the baddy

She was happy to play the baddy in the school play.

the baddy in the story

The baddy in the story turns out to be the hero's brother.

a cartoon baddy

He dressed up as a cartoon baddy for the party.

Synonyms and how they differ

villain

Villain is the neutral, standard word for an evil character; baddy is more childish and informal.

bad guy

Bad guy is the common American informal equivalent and is used for both films and real life.

antagonist

Antagonist is a formal or academic term for the character who opposes the hero, not for a real criminal.

Opposites

Word family

bad adjective

of poor quality or morally wrong, the base word behind baddy

Commonly confused: baddy or baddie? baddy or buddy?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “baddy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words