character assassination

noun

"character-assassination" is a 22-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“character assassination” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
23
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A malicious discourse designed to damage the reputation of someone.

Corpus desk

Index EN-character-assassination · character assassination · English

character assassination · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 23 letters
  • VOW-9 9 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for character assassination
PropertyValue
Headwordcharacter assassination
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters23
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “character assassination” in English

character assassinationranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

character assassination is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A malicious discourse designed to damage the reputation of someone.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for character assassination in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is character assassination, spelled C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R- -A-S-S-A-S-S-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A malicious discourse designed to damage the reputation of someone.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how character assassination appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. For months, Dati warned she would refuse to stand aside. Now she has stunned the political class with an open letter to Fillon in Le Monde, a scathing character assassination accusing him of the "lone ambition" of a disillusioned political elite, of doing politics in a way that "never favoured women" and stopping ethnic-minority candidates from progressin…

Synonyms

demonizationdemonizinghit jobsmear campaignswiftboatingvilification

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "character assassination"?
"character assassination" is spelled C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R- -A-S-S-A-S-S-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.
What does "character assassination" mean?
As a noun, "character assassination" means: A malicious discourse designed to damage the reputation of someone.
What language does "character assassination" come from?
"character assassination" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list