sully vs assassinate

sully and assassinate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
sully	No	No	Yes	No
assassinate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, assassinate is a hyponym of sully; that is, assassinate is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than sully:

sully: charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
assassinate: destroy or damage seriously, as of someone's reputation

Other hyponyms of sully include libel, badmouth, drag through the mud, malign, traduce.

sully (verb)	assassinate (verb)
charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone	destroy or damage seriously, as of someone's reputation
make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically	murder; especially of socially prominent persons
place under suspicion or cast doubt upon