aspersion

1. 1.

   a disparaging remark

   “in the 19th century any reference to female sexuality was considered a vile aspersion”

   “it is difficult for a woman to understand a man's sensitivity to any slur on his virility”

   Synonymsslur

   Broaderdisparagement

   Narrowerethnic slur
2. 2.

   an abusive attack on a person's character or good name

   Synonymscalumnyslanderdefamationdenigration

   Broaderattack
3. 3.

   the act of sprinkling water in baptism (rare)

   Synonymssprinkling

   Broaderbaptism

Other forms of aspersion

plural

aspersions·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about aspersion

What does aspersion mean?

aspersion means "a disparaging remark". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in aspersion?

aspersion has 3 syllables: a-sper-sion. The stress falls on "sper". In IPA it is /əˈspɝʒən/.

What is another word for aspersion?

Close synonyms include slur, calumny, slander, defamation, denigration. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is aspersion a common word?

aspersion is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with aspersion?

1 word rhymes with aspersion. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.