Word Confusion: Defamation is Either Libel or Slander

Plural: defamation

Plural for the noun: libels
Gerund: libeling, libelling [British]

Third person present verb: libels
Past tense or past participle: libeled, libelled [British] Present participle: libeling, libelling [British]

Plural for the noun: slander
Gerund: slandering

Third person present verb: slanders
Past tense or past participle: slandered
Present participle: slandering

• False or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another, as by slander or libel
• Calumny

• A written defamation
• The action or crime of publishing a false statement about a person
• A false and typically malicious statement about a person
• A thing or circumstance that brings undeserved discredit on a person by misrepresentation

[In admiralty and ecclesiastical law] A plaintiff’s written declaration

Verb, transitive:
[Law] Defame (someone) by publishing a libel

• Make a false and typically malicious statement about

[In admiralty and ecclesiastical law] Bring a suit against someone

• A false and malicious spoken statement

Verb, intransitive:
To utter or circulate slander

Verb, transitive:
Make false and damaging statements about someone

• Defame

He’s had so many cases of defamation of character brought against him, that the judges simply sign off on them.

He’s determined to pursue a defamation lawsuit.

If the contents of the publication are untrue, the law of defamation provides prohibition.

No defamation occurs until the defamatory matter is communicated to a third party.

Defendants have counterclaimed for defamation and abuse of process.

The tort of defamation protects a person from untrue imputations which harm his reputation with others.

In defamation the falsity of the libel or slander is presumed; but justification is a complete defense.

It was a miserable libel and was at once rebutted by Goodyear.

They codify laws regarding libel and slander.

The law of libel in England is based on whether the plaintiff has suffered hatred, ridicule, or contempt.

“It was not the mere fact that the libel in rem was supported by a maritime cause of action that brought about this result, for that, of course, was equally true of every libel in personam of which admiralty took jurisdiction” (Black).

Verb, transitive:
The jury found that he was libeled by a newspaper.

Good point, but a blog item that libels someone will remain on the record, likely archived for a good long time, and a libelous statement left online for even a day puts a blogger at tremendous risk.

One cannot say what one likes about people or institutions because one cannot libel anyone.

They have libeled the ship and forced a lien on it.

I’ve had just about all I can stomach of your slanders.

It was a slander against his good name.

Countries shot back and forth at each other with slanders and false accusations.

Verb, intransitive:
“Also outstanding is a scroll illustrating the legends of the Kitano Tenjin Shrine, a site dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, a famous poet, scholar, and statesman who was slandered and exiled from the 10th-century imperial court” (Litt).

Verb, transitive:
They were accused of slandering the head of state.

They had no more worries about slandering Lee Hsien Yang accidentally.

“He slandered his comrades and he did it, as I wrote in the May 3 issue of National Review, by ‘Americanizing’ Soviet propaganda.”