noun
- the act of damaging someone’s reputation by making false statements about them
Usage: legal
Examples
- The celebrity sued the newspaper for defamation after they published false stories about her.
- Defamation laws protect people from having their reputations destroyed by lies.
- The politician claimed the attack ads constituted defamation of character.
- Online defamation has become a serious problem in the digital age.
- The court ruled that the statements were opinion, not defamation.
- She hired a lawyer to pursue a defamation case against her former employer.