Word.ws English Dictionary

calumniate

/kəˈlʌmni.eɪt/

calumniate verb: to make hurtful untrue comments about.

Verb

calumniate (third-person singular simple present calumniates, present participle calumniating, simple past and past participle calumniated)

  1. (transitive) To make hurtful untrue comments about.
    • Hatred unto the truth did always falsely report and calumniate all godly men's doings.a. 1555, John Hooper, A Brief Treatise respecting Judge Hales
    • I missed her when she was not on the stage, in spite of the absorbing interest of that most calumniated and ill-used person, the Jew. (Speaking of Fanny Kemble as Portia)1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 229
    Synonyms:
    diss, slander
  2. (transitive) To levy a false charge against, especially of a vague offense, with the intent to damage someone's reputation or standing.

calumniate meaning in Sanskrit

calumniate in Sanskrit

to calumniate, revile
शंस् śaṃs

Synonyms of calumniate

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of calumniate

Forms of calumniate

third-person singular presentcalumniates
present participlecalumniating
past participlecalumniated
pastcalumniated

Origin of calumniate

First attested in 1554; borrowed from Latin calumniātus, perfect passive participle of calumnior (“to blame, cavil at; to accuse falsely”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Words formed from calumniate

Questions about calumniate

What does calumniate mean?
Calumniate means to make hurtful untrue comments about.
What is calumniate in Sanskrit?
Calumniate in Sanskrit is शंस् (śaṃs). See Calumniate meaning in Sanskrit.
What part of speech is calumniate?
Calumniate is a verb.
How do you pronounce calumniate?
Calumniate is pronounced /kəˈlʌmni.eɪt/.
What is the past tense of calumniate?
The past tense of calumniate is calumniated.

Words near calumniate in the dictionary

  1. Calumet County
  2. calumetite
  3. calumets
  4. calumnate
  5. calumnates
  6. calumniate
  7. calumniated
  8. calumniates
  9. calumniating
  10. calumniation
  11. calumniations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: calumniate (page history and authors); शंस् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-calumniate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “calumniate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/calumniate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.