In legal terms, what does “defamation” mean?

Defamation refers specifically to the act of harming someone’s reputation by making false statements about them to a third party. This concept is grounded in the idea that individuals have a right to their reputation and that it is protected against untrue disparagement. For a statement to be considered defamatory, it must be false and must cause harm to the person's reputation in the eyes of others.

The correct choice accurately reflects this definition, emphasizing that the harm to reputation must arise from statements that are not true. It addresses both the element of falsehood and the necessity of causing reputational harm, which are critical components for establishing a defamation claim in legal terms.