denunciation

/dɪnənsiˈeɪʃɪn/

/dɪnənsiˈeɪʃən/

Other forms: denunciations

A denunciation is a public reprimand in which you are told that you've done wrong. If you get caught skipping school, expect denunciation — by teachers, your principal, parents and maybe even your friends.

When you harshly criticize someone or something in front of other people, it's a denunciation, like an opinion piece that appears in a newspaper. Sometimes denunciation has the meaning of telling on or exposing someone's misdeeds, like a juicy, book-length denunciation of a famous guitarist written by a former bandmate. The Latin root word is denuntiare, "to announce, proclaim, denounce, or command."

Definitions of denunciation

1. noun

   a public act of denouncing
   synonyms: denouncement

   types:

   excoriation

   severe censure

   diatribe, fulmination

   thunderous verbal attack

   broadside, philippic, tirade

   a speech of violent denunciation

   condemnation, curse, execration

   an appeal to some supernatural power to inflict evil on someone or some group

   anathema

   a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication

   imprecation, malediction

   the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult)

   type of:

   speech act

   the use of language to perform some act