Meaning & use
defamation
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The act of harming someone's good name by saying or writing untrue things about them.
Grammar: No plural or article: the article amounts to defamation.
Patterns
- defamation of someone
- accuse someone of defamation
The politician accused the newspaper of defamation after the false story.
Spreading lies about a neighbor online can amount to defamation.
The company's reputation suffered through defamation by a rival.
noununcountablelegal
In law, a civil claim brought by a person who says false statements have damaged their reputation, covering libel and slander.
Grammar: Often used before another noun: a defamation case.
Patterns
- sue someone for defamation
- a defamation lawsuit
She sued the magazine for defamation and won damages.
The judge dismissed the defamation case because the statements were true.
A defamation lawyer reviewed the article before publication.
Common combinations
- sue for defamation
- He decided to sue the blogger for defamation.
- defamation lawsuit
- The defamation lawsuit lasted two years.
- defamation of character
- She claimed defamation of character after the rumors spread.
- commit defamation
- Publishing false accusations can commit defamation even online.
- defamation law
- Defamation law differs between countries.
Synonyms and how they differ
- libel
- Libel is defamation in written or published form, so it is narrower than defamation.
- slander
- Slander is spoken defamation, and in everyday use it can also mean any malicious talk.
- smear
- A smear is an informal word for a deliberate attempt to damage a reputation, and it does not need to meet any legal test.
- calumny
- Calumny is a formal, literary word for false and malicious statements, and is rare in modern law.
Opposites
Word family
- defame verb
- to damage someone's reputation with false statements
- defamatory adjective
- harmful to a reputation and untrue
- defamer noun
- a person who defames someone
- libel noun
- written defamation
Commonly confused: defamation or deformation?
defamation vs deformation
Deformation is a change of shape, as of metal under pressure. It is unrelated to damaging someone's reputation.
Practice
The singer threatened to sue the website for ___ after it published false claims about her.
Choose one answer.
Defamation is damaging someone's reputation with false statements. The other options look similar but mean a change in shape, falling prices or a word's meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “defamation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.