Denigration is the noun for that pulling-down talk — the act of denigrating, or the words themselves. If a newspaper is full of denigration, it is not really arguing; it is trying to make a person or a group look cheap. Like the verb, this word lives in formal writing and public argument, not in everyday chat. People speak of “the denigration of” teachers, science, a culture, and so on: the of-phrase names who or what is being pushed down. Though actually, one cutting remark is usually just an insult; denigration suggests a pattern, a smear, something that stains a reputation rather than one bad sentence.