Defame

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Disgrace, dishonour. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "And all the sparks that may bring unto flame / Hate betwixt man and wife, or breed defame."

  2. 2
    Defamation; slander, libel. archaic, countable, nonstandard, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To disgrace; to bring into disrepute.

    "My guilt thy growing virtues did defame; / My blackness blotted thy unblemish'd name."

  2. 2
    charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone wordnet
  3. 3
    To charge; to accuse (someone) of an offence. historical

    "Rebecca is […] defamed of sorcery practised on the person of a noble knight."

  4. 4
    To harm or diminish the reputation of; to disparage.

    "to defame somebody"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Synonym of defamed. not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms
besmirchslanderaspersecalumniatedenigratesmear

Example

More examples

"In Thailand it is a criminal offence to defame or insult the king, princes or previous kings. Accusations of lèse-majesté are sometimes supported by the flimsiest or even nonexistent evidence, and those convicted have been sentenced to as much as sixty years in prison."

Etymology

From Middle English defamen, from Anglo-Norman defamer (verb), defame (noun), and its source, Latin diffāmō, from fāma (“fame; rumour; reputation”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.