Ace the 2025 CPHRM Challenge – Rock Your Health Care Risk Management Skills!

The term that describes the oral communication of false defamation is "slander." Slander specifically refers to spoken statements that can harm someone's reputation, as opposed to libel, which pertains to written or published defamatory statements. In legal contexts, it is important to distinguish between these two forms of defamation because they are governed by different standards and rules.

Defamation as a broader term encompasses both slander and libel, representing any untrue statement that damages a person's reputation. However, the specificity of the communication method — spoken in the case of slander — is what differentiates it from libel. Malicious intent refers to the state of mind or motive behind the defamatory expression, which can impact cases of defamation but does not directly describe the type of communication itself. Therefore, the correct choice accurately identifies the specific legal definition relevant to oral statements that falsely defame an individual.