character assassination vs assassination

character assassination and assassination both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
character assassination	Yes	No	No	No
assassination	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, character assassination and assassination are synonyms defined as:

character assassination and assassination: an attack intended to ruin someone's reputation

Other synonyms of character assassination include blackwash.

character assassination (noun)	assassination (noun)
an attack intended to ruin someone's reputation	murder of a public figure by surprise attack
	an attack intended to ruin someone's reputation