vilification

American  

[vil-uh-fi-key-shuhn] / ˌvɪl ə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of vilification

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

Explanation

If one politician speaks in a strongly insulting way about another politician, that's vilification. Vilification is saying something extremely derogatory about someone in speech or writing. When vilification is deliberate and false, it can be called libel (making a false written statement about someone) or slander (speaking that same false statement aloud). Vilification isn't always a lie, although it usually is—and sometimes vilification is used with the intention of inciting hatred of a person or group of people: "The website was shut down because of its vilification of immigrants."

Example Sentences

There followed a statement by U.S. bishops condemning what they called the vilification and arbitrary treatment of migrants.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025

But Coomer’s lawyers insisted the Stupid Defense couldn’t excuse the vilification of Coomer or the impact on his reputation.

From Slate • Jun. 25, 2025

He suggests that his main priority has been to avoid the kind of "campaign of vilification" that the Sun unleashed on his predecessors Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.

From BBC • Jun. 14, 2024

Such vilification is proved off the mark by the fact that poverty-stricken Mississippi has relatively few homeless people.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2024

Despite the taint of ain’t from its origin in regional and lower-class English, and more than a century of vilification by schoolteachers, today the word is going strong.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker