Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation.
- n. The utterance of maliciously false statements; slander.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. False accusation of crime, misconduct, or defect, knowingly or maliciously made or reported, to the injury of another; untruth maliciously spoken, to the detraction of another; a defamatory report; slander.
- n. Synonyms Lying, falsehood, libel, aspersion, detraction, backbiting, defamation, evil-speaking.
Wiktionary
- n. a falsification or misrepresentation intended to disparage or discredit another.
- n. false charges brought about to tarnish another's reputation or standing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. False accusation of a crime or offense, maliciously made or reported, to the injury of another; malicious misrepresentation; slander; detraction.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an abusive attack on a person's character or good name
- n. a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions
Etymologies
- Middle French calomnie, from Latin calumnia ("slander"), perhaps from calvor ("I deceive"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English calumnie, from Old French calomnie, from Latin calumnia, from calvī, to deceive. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Well, yes, you can request the candidate, to Write a short note on the word calumny above, or ask From what is it derived?”
“It was the word calumny that offended him most, that, and the idea that he, the Marquis of Trowbridge, should be called upon to promise not to commit an offence!”
“Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and to attack the most vulnerable part.”
“Yesterday's term was calumny, which is defined as:”
“(Laugier, tom.ii. p. 119) accuse the emperor Manuel; but the calumny is refuted by Villehardouin and the older writers, who suppose that Dandolo lost his eyes by a wound, (No. 31, and”
“When they place these phrases in opposition to each other, they do this, not from the meaning which I affix to them, but from their own; and, therefore, according to the signification which they give to them severally, they fabricate this calumny, which is an act of iniquity.”
“Objectively, a calumny is a mortal sin when it is calculated to do serious harm to the person so traduced.”
“Wicked doers and speakers alike delight in calumny.”
“Now, I am receiving for all this a guerdon of blame and calumny, which is cast upon me in order to cover up faults which have been committed by others in past days.”
“Another calumny is their charging us with opposition to the fathers, -- I mean the writers of the earlier and purer ages, -- as if those writers were abettors of their impiety; whereas, if the contest were to be terminated by this authority, the victory in most parts of the controversy -- to speak in the most modest terms -- would be on our side.”
Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calumny’.
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sdamle1
echt
echt, apocalypse, resurgence, forthright, logorrhea, mercurial, torrid, exorcise, obscure, intrusive, morose, vindictive and 100 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 165 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 204 more...
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Words From Don Quixote
fortuitous, conciliate, verity, encomium, wanton, inveterate, delineate, thraldom, brigantine, perfidious, inveigle, exhort and 14 more...
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New Words
Words I want to add to my working vocabulary.
picayune, elision, intimated, modicum, non sequitur, insouciant, vituperate, asperity, perfidious, gainsay, fulmination, inimical and 11 more...
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Neuro-logical ??
The discovering of neuro and phago-cyte nano-engineered biology...
opsoclonus, opsomania, speciefic, opsonin, reveal, parsec, stereopsis, scarious, ablative absolute, presage, requisitory, nuance and 62 more...
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Citicize/Criticism
belittle, berate, calumny, castigate, decry, defamation, disparage, excoriate, gainsay, harangue, impugn, inveigh and 9 more...
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Word Up
piquancy, piquant, vapid, mendacious, impassive, austere, austerity, periphery, hiatus, brandish, anorexia, parody and 32 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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Magoosh GRE
its a list of words borrowed from Magoosh GRE blog ,an indispensable resource for GRE test takers.
inimitable, exiguity, myriad, cornucopia, surfeit, glut, deluge, opaque, pellucid, grandiloquent, turgid, gadfly and 106 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for calumny.
koldewyse Found this in The Crucible. Who'd have guessed? Sep 7, 2008
brtom "Daughters of calumny, I summon you!" Sheridan, School for Scandal. Jan 2, 2008
sionnach What I don't recall is the difference between calumny and slander. Except that the latter acts as its own verb, obviously.
I do believe that the calumniators get a dedicated niche in the inferno. And that was before the 10th circle was opened, as reported in The Onion. Oct 10, 2007
chained_bear Every time I see this word I think of the young officer in "Master and Commander" named Peter Miles Calamy. Oct 10, 2007