big bad

noun

variants or Big Bad

plural big bads or Big Bads

: a major villain or antagonist (as in a movie, show, or game)

When Ursula, the story's big bad, took to the screen, I would run behind the entertainment center and cover my eyes, a fact my mom loves to remind me about whenever she gets the chance.

—KT Hawbaker

As the show [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] aged, the Big Bads became more dangerous and the lessons more adult, but Buffy never gave up …

—Kaitlin Thomas

The Big Bad this time around is the wind mage Vaati, who has captured Zelda, and it's your quest to defeat him and prevent the unholy union of princess and evil eyeball-blob-thing.

—Tony Ponce

Examples of big bad in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Ocean's big bad is casino owner Terry Benedict, played with the perfect amount of oily malevolence by Oscar nominee Andy García. —Randall Colburn, EW.com, 3 May 2025

Just in time for our disembodied Boston-Jigsaw-voice of a big bad to finally show his face. —Andy Andersen, Vulture, 25 Apr. 2025

Imagine how much the pacing problems on Jessica Jones or Luke Cage (or, for that matter, Daredevil) would have been eased simply by devoting a few episodes at the start of each season to our heroes working cases that had nothing to do with the latest big bads. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Mar. 2025

In addition to playing the Harry Potter franchise's big bad Voldemort, Fiennes has recently appeared in Mark Mylod's The Menu (2022) and Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023). —Randall Colburn, EW.com, 17 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2001, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for big bad

• comrade
• dryad
• dyad
• forbad
• grandad
• granddad
• keypad
• nomad
• notepad
• postgrad
• sinbad
• tetrad