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 1964, a unanimous Supreme Court said the 1st Amendment’s protection for the freedom of speech and the press limited state libel verdicts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
In 2014, it was reported that he had loaned David Hunt £1m, after a failed libel action against the Sunday Times left the crime boss with an £800,000 legal bill.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 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
Sullivan changed the standard for defamation and libel by requiring plaintiffs to prove malice—that is, evidence of actual knowledge on the part of the publisher that a statement is false.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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
Heard’s lawyers, who have filed their own countersuit against Depp, say nothing in the article libels him.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2022
"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
Jefferson did not retract his libels, but he made an exception for Banneker by allowing him to participate in surveying the District of Columbia.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
In effect, he had no role whatsoever in promoting Callender’s libels against Adams.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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
Former engineer says Tesla forced her out and then libeled her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2022
Store owners Allyn Gibson and his son, David Gibson, sued Oberlin College in November 2017 claiming they had been libeled by the school and their business had been harmed.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
The next day, the jury delivered its verdict, also rejecting Ms. Palin’s claim that The Times had libeled her in a 2017 editorial that erroneously linked her political rhetoric to a mass shooting.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2022
Harry rubbed the libeled proboscis, pawed at his mustache and fidgeted in his chair.
From The Cross-Cut by Cooper, Courtney Ryley
The dead can’t be libelled, but they can have their privacy invaded.
From Nature ● May 1, 2018
Sally Bercow settled her case with Lord McAlpine after being found to have libelled him on Twitter.
From The Guardian ● May 26, 2013
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
The 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 30, 2011
There are those who say that De Zafra had no daughter, and that he has been libelled in this matter.
From Southern Spain by Calvert, A. F. (Albert Frederick)
Claiming that she ruined his reputation and career, Depp is suing Heard for $50 million for allegedly libeling him in a 2018 op-ed she wrote that was published in the Washington Post.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2022
The burden is still on Palin to prove that Bennet is guilty of libeling her.
From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2022
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
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
Photograph: Ian Gavan/Getty Images It seems that , found guilty of libelling Lord McAlpine, is a Twitter martyr in some quarters.
From The Guardian ● May 25, 2013
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
You never cease libelling that unfortunate woman from morning to night.
From The Making of a Soul by Rhodes, Kathlyn
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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