Library / English Dictionary

VILLEIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

Synonyms:

helot; serf; villein

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("villein" is a kind of...):

thrall (someone held in bondage)

Domain category:

Dark Ages; Middle Ages (the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance)

Domain region:

Europe (the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use 'Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "villein"):

cotter; cottier (a medieval English villein)

Credits