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libel

[lahy-buhl] / ˈlaɪ bəl /
NOUN
purposeful lie about someone, often malicious
Synonyms
Antonyms




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.

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

He has been questioned in court before about his alleged IRA past - at the Ballymurphy inquest in Belfast in 2019 and during a libel case against the BBC in Dublin in 2025.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026

Upon its publication in 1857, two years after the death of the author of “Jane Eyre,” Gaskell received angry letters, threats of libel lawsuits and outraged responses from Brontë’s father and her widower.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

Smart Shirts Ltd, a Hong Kong supplier of garments with customers in the UK, brought a claim for libel, alleging it had been defamed as its name was included.

From BBC • Nov. 3, 2025

After many nights without sleep, we have given the original letter to our lawyer, who is instigating a libel suit for $500,000.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole




Vocabulary lists containing libel


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