defamation
n. uncountablen. harm to someone's reputation caused by false statements. It can happen in writing or in speech.
n. the action of making false statements that damage a person's reputation. A legal term covering both written and spoken falsehoods.
The article was a clear case of defamation.
She sued the newspaper for defamation after they published false claims about her work.
Proving defamation requires demonstrating that the false statement was published to a third party and caused measurable harm to the plaintiff's standing.
From Old French diffamacion (French diffamation), from Latin diffāmātiō. By surface analysis, defame + -ation.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 4, 2026