defamatory vs libellous

defamatory and libellous both are adjectives.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
defamatory	No	Yes	No	No
libellous	No	Yes	No	No

As adjectives, defamatory and libellous are synonyms defined as:

defamatory and libellous: (used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign

Other synonyms of defamatory include calumniatory, calumnious, denigrating, denigrative, denigratory, libelous, slanderous.

defamatory (adjective)	libellous (adjective)
(used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign	(used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign