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Harming someone's reputation in speech with falsehoods is known as slander, and doing the same thing in writing is known as libel (which sometimes includes speech as well). Any ordinary citizen who can claim to have suffered harm as a result of such defamation may sue. So why aren't politicians suing all the time? Because an exception is made for "public persons" (a category that includes most other celebrities as well), who must also prove that any such statement was made with "reckless disregard for the truth". And although, even by that standard, public persons are defamed all the time, most of them have decided that it's better to just grin and bear it.
Examples of defamation in a Sentence
Zack Sharf, Variety, 15 July 2025
Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey, who Martha was allegedly based on, filed a $170 million lawsuit against Netflix in June 2024, accusing the network of defamation and inaccuracy.
—Latoya Gayle, People.com, 14 July 2025
The Indiana Democracy Collective and Indiana Progressive Collaborative, which are named defendants in Watts' defamation lawsuit, collectively raised $1.8 million in 2023, according to their latest publicly available 990 filings.
—Kayla Dwyer, IndyStar, 14 July 2025
In the late 1990s, Preska was the judge for the defamation lawsuit brought by wrongly accused Olympic Park bombing suspect Richard Jewell against the New York Post.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for defamation
Cite this Entry
“Defamation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defamation. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
defamation
noun
W. L. Prosser and W. P. Keeton
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