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.
   • 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:

     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) (zrpartutʻyun)
• 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)