Vilification is the act of attacking someone's good name in public — saying or writing bad things about a person or group again and again so that others will look down on them. It is the noun that goes with the verb vilify. Two points matter. First, the word carries a judgement: calling something vilification means you think the attack is unfair or excessive, not honest criticism. Second, it usually describes something public and sustained — a newspaper campaign, years of political attack — not one rude remark between friends. It is a formal word you will meet in news reports, courtrooms and academic writing; nobody says it over lunch. Common patterns: 'the vilification of immigrants', 'a campaign of vilification', 'public vilification'. In Australian law 'racial vilification' is a fixed legal term.