defamation

English

Etymology

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

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.
   • 2023 April 21, John Poulos, “Dominion’s C.E.O.: Why We Settled the Lawsuit Against Fox News”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →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.

Synonyms

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

Related terms

• defame
• defamatory

Translations

act of injuring another's reputation by any slanderous communication

• Albanian: shpifje (sq) f
• Arabic: تَشْهِير‎ m (tašhīr), بُهْتَان‎ (ar) m (buhtān), اِفْتِرَاء‎ m (iftirāʔ)
• Armenian: զրպարտություն (hy) (zrpartutʿyun)
• Azerbaijani: şər-böhtan, böhtan (az), iftira (az)
• Belarusian: паклёп m (pakljóp), намо́ва f (namóva), нагаво́р m (nahavór)
• Bulgarian: клевета́ (bg) f (klevetá), ху́ла (bg) f (húla), хула́ (bg) f (hulá)
• Catalan: difamació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誹謗／诽谤 (zh) (fěibàng), 毀謗／毁谤 (zh) (huǐbàng), 誣蔑／诬蔑 (zh) (wūmiè)

• Czech: pomluva (cs) f, kleveta f
• Danish: bagvaskelse c
• Dutch: laster (nl) m, smaad (nl) m, belastering (nl) f
• Esperanto: kalumnio
• Faroese: ærumeiðing f
• Finnish: (legal term) kunnianloukkaus (fi), (common terms) herjaus (fi), solvaus (fi)
• French: diffamation (fr) f
• Georgian: ცილისწამება (cilisc̣ameba), დისკრედიტაცია (disḳrediṭacia), დიფამაცია (dipamacia), რეპუტაციის შელახვა (reṗuṭaciis šelaxva)
• German: Verleumdung (de) f, Diffamierung (de) f, Schmähung (de) f
• Greek: δυσφήμιση (el) f (dysfímisi), συκοφαντία (el) f (sykofantía), (defamation of character) συκοφαντική δυσφήμιση f (sykofantikí dysfímisi)
• Hebrew: הַשְׁמָצָה‎ (he) f (hashmatsá)
• Hindi: मानहानि (hi) f (mānhāni)
• Hungarian: rágalmazás (hu)
• Indonesian: defamasi
• Irish: clúmhilleadh m, aithisiú m
• Italian: diffamazione (it) f
• Japanese: 名誉毀損 (ja) (めいよきそん, meiyokison), 中傷 (ja) (ちゅうしょう, chūshō), 誹謗中傷 (ja) (ひぼうちゅうしょう, hibō chūshō)
• Kazakh: жала (jala)
• Korean: 중상(中傷) (ko) (jungsang), 명예 훼손(名譽毁損) (ko) (myeong'ye hweson), 훼방(毁謗) (ko) (hwebang), 비방(誹謗) (ko) (bibang), 손가락질 (son'garakjil)
• Kyrgyz: жалаа (ky) (jalaa)
• Latin: diffamatio, obtrectatio, diffamatio, obtrectatio
• Macedonian: клевета f (kleveta)
• Malayalam: അപകീർത്തി (ml) (apakīṟtti), മാനഹാനി (ml) (mānahāni)
• Maori: orohanga, haohao
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ærekrenkelse (no) m, ærekrenking m or f, bakvaskelse (no) m

  Nynorsk: ærekrenking f

• Persian: تُهمَت‎ (fa) (tohmat), بُهتان‎ (fa) (bohtân), اِفتِرا‎ (fa) (efterâ)
• Polish: zniesławienie (pl) n, oszczerstwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: difamação (pt) f
• Romanian: calomnie (ro) f, defăimare (ro) f
• Russian: диффама́ция (ru) f (diffamácija), шельмова́ние (ru) n (šelʹmovánije), клевета́ (ru) f (klevetá), поноше́ние (ru) n (ponošénije), хула́ (ru) f (xulá), поклёп (ru) m (pokljóp) (colloquial), нагово́р (ru) m (nagovór) (colloquial)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: клѐвета f, о̏бједа f

  Roman: klèveta (sh) f, ȍbjeda (sh) f

• Slovak: ohováranie n, hanobenie n, klebeta f
• Slovene: kleveta f
• Spanish: difamación (es) f
• Swedish: ärekränkning (sv) c, förtal (sv) n
• Tajik: бадномкунӣ (badnomkunī), туҳмат (tuhmat), буҳтон (buhton), ифтиро (tg) (iftiro)
• Thai: หมิ่นประมาท (th) (mìn-bprà-màat)
• Turkish: iftira (tr), hakaret (tr)
• Ukrainian: на́клеп m (náklep), по́клеп m (póklep)
• Uyghur: بەتنام‎ (betnam)
• Uzbek: tuhmat (uz), boʻhton (uz), iftiro (uz) (dated, literary)