libel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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“In fact, the legal threat is much greater in the U.K. because the libel laws are tougher in the U.K. So there was no fear around putting it out in the U.S.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The New York Times has said libel action threatened against it by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over an article alleging sexual assaults against Palestinian detainees by Israeli security services is "without merit".
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
One newspaper denounced “The Playboy of the Western World” as an “unmitigated, prolonged libel upon Irish peasant men and, worse still, upon Irish peasant girlhood.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
The case type is described as "Media and Communication -- Part 7 Claim -- Defamation -- libel and slander".
From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026
He sued Cobbett for libel, and after a long and public trial in 1800, the jury awarded Rush $5,000, plus $3,000 court costs.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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Until we learn to recognize its libels, we will continue to fight yesterday’s hatred while losing to today’s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 26, 2026
In response, Meshi-Zahav wrote a letter saying “these libels are baseless and appear more as gossip and closing of accounts against me.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2021
"Far from increasing a public figure’s burden in a defamation action, the common law deemed libels against public figures to be, if anything, more serious and injurious than ordinary libels," Thomas wrote.
From Fox News ● Feb. 19, 2019
Adams’s Federalists, he writes, “struck at enemies at home with laws allowing the president to deport aliens he deemed dangerous and the federal courts to prosecute libels on the federal government.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 4, 2019
At the start of the correspondence Adams had felt deep resentment toward Jefferson for the libels he had sponsored during the Adams presidency.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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Patel’s defamation suit accuses The Atlantic of “actual malice,” a legal test that needs to be met for public officials to successfully prove they’ve been libeled.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2026
Harry claims the article was “fundamentally inaccurate” and the newspaper libeled him when it suggested he lied in his initial public statements about his case challenging the government.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2023
Former engineer says Tesla forced her out and then libeled her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2022
The founders of Alfa Bank, a major Russian financial institution, are suing Fusion GPS, claiming the firm libeled them.
From New York Times ● May 15, 2021
Twice I booked for Sydney on my own—missed one boat through a train wreck, and the other was libeled at the dockhead.
From Where the Pavement Ends by John Russell
Jewell filed lawsuits against many of the publications and networks who he claimed had libelled him.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 12, 2019
The dead can’t be libelled, but they can have their privacy invaded.
From Nature ● May 1, 2018
The Crown requires to lead evidence from both witnesses in relation to what they saw or heard on the day libelled.
From BBC ● May 17, 2012
South Tyneside Council went to court in California after three councillors and an official complained they were libelled in a blog called "Mr Monkey".
From BBC ● May 29, 2011
Since taking it, more than my old force has returned, so that I have libelled nine prominent persons and successfully defended six libel actions in the courts.
From What Not A Prophetic Comedy by Dame Rose Macaulay
The burden is still on Palin to prove that Bennet is guilty of libeling her.
From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2022
And who knows who’s responsible for an unnecessary portrayal of media ethics that strains credulity and verges on libeling the fourth estate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2021
Last month, she sued two Portuguese news outlets for allegedly libeling a New Jersey man by tying him to a far-right Portuguese political party.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 22, 2021
He then boldly read those words to Congress and millions of people, defaming & libeling me.” — tweets on Sept. 28.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2019
Burr was there because Hamilton had been libeling him throughout their crisscrossing careers in public life.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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In 1992, some of the subjects of “Boys of Zinc,” along with an organization representing the mothers of soldiers killed in the war, sued Alexievich for libelling the Soviet military.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 26, 2015
I feel it’s happening already, that the people who say, ‘He’s lying, he’s plagiarising, he’s libelling us’, will end up having more importance than my own research, my own attempts to investigate how things work.”
From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2015
Her second marriage ended in divorce within a year, and she had to settle out of court with her first husband's family over accusations that she was libelling them in her act.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 21, 2012
In 2010, it paid five-figure damages to Sheryl Gascoigne for libelling her over her relationship with her former husband.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 10, 2011
If you meet that libelling scoundrel again, you remember what I've told you.'
From The Giant's Robe by F. Anstey
Vocabulary lists containing libel
All About That Baseless: Bad-Faith Accusations
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"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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