name calling

1. 1.

   verbal abuse; a crude substitute for argument

   “sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me”

   Synonymsnames

   Broaderdefamation

Questions about name calling

What does name calling mean?

name calling means "verbal abuse; a crude substitute for argument".

What is another word for name calling?

Close synonyms include names. 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 name calling a common word?

name calling 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.