vilify
to speak about someone in abusively disparaging terms
Word origin: From Latin vilis, cheap or worthless.
Vilify in a sentence
Here are example sentences showing vilify in a sentence.
The press vilified the politician long before any charges were proven.
Rival pamphleteers vilified the reformer as a fraud long after the charges had been disproved.
Quick GRE check
3 questions, about 2 minutes. How would you do on the real test?
Verbal · Text Completion
Although the senator's memoir was marketed as a frank reckoning with his failures, reviewers found it relentlessly blank, dwelling on grievances and recasting every setback as the fault of his adversaries.
Using “vilify” well
To vilify is to speak about someone in abusively disparaging terms, attacking their reputation. It is the opposite of praising or extolling.
More GRE words starting with V
to waver indecisively between options or opinions
the inability to decide between different courses of action; wavering
total absence of thought, ideas, or substance
empty of meaning, substance, or intelligence
a person who roams from place to place with no fixed home
an unpredictable or capricious change or notion
a person who wanders without a settled home or work
excessively boastful and vain about one's achievements
Questions about “vilify”
See these words the way the GRE tests them.
Take the free 39-minute GRE Quick Mock Test and meet words like this inside real Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, with a worked solution for every answer.