Definition of CALUMNY

Did You Know?

Calumny made an appearance in these famous words from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go." The word had been in the English language for a while, though, before Hamlet uttered it. It first entered English in the 15th century and comes from the Middle French word calomnie of the same meaning. Calomnie, in turn, derives from the Latin word calumnia, (meaning "false accusation," "false claim," or "trickery"), which itself traces to the Latin verb calvi, meaning "to deceive."

Examples of calumny in a Sentence

They uttered calumnies against him. He was the target of calumny for his unpopular beliefs.

Recent Examples on the Web

The House has used its investigative apparatus to hurl a continuous series of calumnies at Mueller and the FBI. — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, "In Year Two, Mueller Is Wading Into a Bottomless Pit of Trump Sleaze," 17 May 2018 But the government contends that the bill is needed to patch gaps in existing legislation, allowing faster action to stop the spread of calumny through social media as well as in print. — The Economist, "Asian countries launch phoney assaults on fake news," 5 Apr. 2018 The Post still has an engaged readership, but so too do many publications, and social media feeds, that spread calumny and discord instead of facts. — Daniel D'addario, Time, "The Post Is an Urgent Reminder of How Much Journalism Matters. Especially Now," 5 Jan. 2018 To be sure, its taboos have helped keep the most horrific slurs and calumnies out of the public sphere. — Yascha Mounk, The New Republic, "Germany’s risky law for stopping hate speech on Facebook and Twitter," 3 Apr. 2018 Francis eventually walked back his claims of calumny and sent a Vatican special prosecutor to Chile to investigate the claims of coverup. — Christopher J. Hale, Time, "Pope Francis’s Failure to Address Abuse Allegations Jeopardizes His Papacy," 6 Feb. 2018 As these parties are forced to work together across traditional political cleavages, this old calumny is increasingly turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy. — Yascha Mounk, Slate Magazine, "The End of the German Exception," 24 Sep. 2017 Somehow the Bannon brigades outside the White House decided to assail the general as insufficiently pro-Israel and not hostile enough to Islamic State, among other calumnies. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "McMaster and the Commander," 8 Aug. 2017 His calumny was condemned even by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. — Orange County Register, "Letters: Evaluating Obama’s legacy," 8 Jan. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'calumny.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.