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 English calumnie, from Old French calomnie, from Latin calumnia, from calvī, to deceive.
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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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1073 more...
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 1 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Words to describe behavior
aberrant, hubris, calumny, sequester, ebullient, malfeasance, salubrious, foible, mercurial, laconic, fugacity, recalcitrant and 7 more...
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Words of Ill-Repute
bona roba, obloquy, bagnio, demirep, frowzy, odium, calumny, opprobrium, rogue, currish, piacular, abreact and 11 more...
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Talking About Words
The favorite words of Talking Tyrants
dolorous, parsimonious, apotemnophilia, odalisque, tuberoinfundibular, morass, ostentatious, sybaritic, vermilion, onomatopoeia, eschatology, teleology and 49 more...
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GRE
abase, broach, brocade, burgeon, bungle, bureaucracy, burly, burnished, browbeat, brusque, bucolic, buffoonery and 20 more...
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Censure (n.)
aspersion, calumny, contumely, diatribe, obloquy, opprobrium, philippic, tirade, vilipendency, tantalization, admonition, beration and 23 more...
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Nouny
calumny, parsimony, gluttony, alimony, sanctimony, harmony, miscegeny, telephony, colony, antimony, larceny, mahogany and 26 more...
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Words I like
A list contrived for the sole purpose of storing words I like to include in my writing; words that inspire or carry power for me.
contrite, meadow, sward, ossary, calumny, moribund, necropolis, chthonic, murmur, erstwhile, chime, beryl and 29 more...
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