defamation

English

Etymology

From Old French diffamacion (French diffamation), from Latin diffāmātiō. By surface analysis, defame +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌdɛfəˈmeɪʃən/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən
  • Hyphenation: def‧am‧ation

Noun

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.
    She sued his ex-boyfriend for defamation and is seeking $14,000.
    • 2005, “Journalists Imprisoned in 2004”, in Bill Sweeney, editor, Attacks on the Press in 2004‎[1], →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[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 April 2023:
      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.
    • 2025 September 19, Peter Charalambous, “Judge tosses Trump's $15B defamation suit against New York Times, Penguin Random House”, in ABC News‎[3], archived from the original on 20 September 2025:
      Merryday, who was appointed by President Geroge[sic] H. W. Bush, said the complaint contains eighty pages of repetitive claims and praise for President Trump, but fails to establish the two counts of defamation alleged.

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