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

"So how's he responded? He's responded by co-ordinating the most unprecedented vilification and campaign of incitement to violence against the man who, frankly, he knows he cannot beat at the ballot box," he said.

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"Make no mistake, this type of rhetoric is contributing to the surge in assaults of officers through their repeated vilification and demonization."

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Then, after a 20-year detour into essays - that split public opinion and earned her both reverence and vilification - and a second novel, Roy has returned with her first memoir.

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But some say the vilification of developers is misplaced.

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Or, more specifically, the scapegoating and vilification of immigrants that prefigured Trump and his “poisoning the blood of our country” Sturm und Drang.

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