vilification

[ vil-uh-fi-key-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act of defaming or speaking ill of someone or something:

   Senior bishops are prepared to atone for the vilification their predecessors heaped on Darwin in the 1860s, when he put forward his theory of evolution.

Word History and Origins

Origin of vilification¹

First recorded in 1600–10; equivalent to vili(fy) ( def ) + -fication ( def )

Example Sentences

“A year ago, after massive blast at #AlAhli Hospital, just questioning if Israeli forces might be responsible was to invite vilification. Today? So many hospitals, clinics, health professionals and patients have been targeted/killed in Gaza and Lebanon, it is impossible to keep track,” Alex Neve, international human rights lawyer and former Amnesty International Canada Secretary General, wrote last week during the sieges of the last three functioning hospitals in Gaza’s north.

From Salon

In the last presidential election, that window was four days, plenty of time for Trump to cry foul and incite what experts describe as “stochastic terrorism,” a term for the acts of intimidation and violence that follow his vilification of political opponents and even just public officials doing their jobs.

From Salon

What does not help, in any way, is the vilification of people who do not have children.

From Los Angeles Times

This time, we can be sure that a Trump victory will mean mass concentration camps that will be filled with millions of non-white immigrants, in conditions of supreme horror justified by the mass vilification of their prisoners.

From Salon

Wolff also encouraged social critics to not be hoodwinked by "simple-minded arguments" that attempt to turn people off from all left-wing politics through generic vilification of bureaucrats.

From Salon