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Traduce is one of a number of English synonyms that you can choose when you need a word that means "to injure by speaking ill of." Choose traduce when you want to stress the deep personal humiliation, disgrace, and distress felt by the victim. If someone doesn't actually lie, but makes statements that injure by specific and often subtle misrepresentations, malign may be the more precise choice. To make it clear that the speaker is malicious and the statements made are false, calumniate is a good option. But if you need to say that certain statements represent an attempt to destroy a reputation by open and direct abuse, vilify is the word you want.
Examples of traduce in a Sentence
Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 11 May 2025
Its founding principles and its 1968 charter are of a bygone era, and they have been violated and traduced by the Palestinians’ own official practice.
—Hussein Agha, Foreign Affairs, 16 Feb. 2021
Those serenely appraising eyes refuse to be traduced by any fiction.
—Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2023
Her infatuation traduces the complexities of interracial, interspecies, and cross-cultural attraction.
—Armond White, National Review, 26 May 2023
And the academic establishment traduced it, mocked it, minimized it.
—Ariana Marsh, Harper's BAZAAR, 6 Mar. 2023
In Philip’s case, the myth was the good Jewish boy traduced by inner anarchy.
—Benjamin Taylor, The Atlantic, 21 Apr. 2020
Authors and illustrators are being flamed online and having their reputations traduced and their careers threatened for transgressing the capricious new standards of ideological purity.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 31 Jan. 2020
The site functions first as a watchdog to the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a profane populist who not only traduces norms but also urges the assassination of Filipino citizens in the name of combatting drugs.
—Karl Vick, Time, 12 Dec. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Traduce.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/traduce. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.
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