defamation

From Old French diffamacion (French diffamation), from Latin diffāmātiō.

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɛfəˈmeɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: def‧am‧ation

defamation (countable and uncountable, plural defamations)

1. The act of injuring another person's reputation by any slanderous communication, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another.
   • 2005, “Journalists Imprisoned in 2004”, in Bill Sweeney, editor, Attacks on the Press in 2004‎, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 251, column 2:

     In a closed trial on December 24, 2004, the People’s Court of Jinshui District in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, convicted Zhang Ruquan, along with his associate Zhang Zhengyao, in a public prosecution on charges of defamation that “seriously undermined social order or the state interest.” The two were sentenced to three years in prison for defaming former Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

   • 2023 April 21, John Poulos, “Dominion’s C.E.O.: Why We Settled the Lawsuit Against Fox News”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     An hour later, when the Fox board approved the wire payment for $787.5 million — one of the largest known defamation settlements in history — Fox acknowledged what we needed it to acknowledge: spreading false claims comes with a huge price tag.

• aspersion, calumny, detraction, false light, libel, slander, aftertale
• See also Thesaurus:slander

• defame
• defamatory