noun
1. : a communication between parties to a confidential relation such that the recipient cannot be legally compelled to disclose it as a witness (as a communication between lawyer and client, physician and patient, husband and wife) — called also confidential communication
2. : a defamatory communication the making of which does not expose the party making it to the civil or criminal liability that would follow from it if not privileged — called also absolutely privileged communication
3. : a defamatory statement made by one person to another who is in a confidential relation (as that of prospective employer) or who has an interest therein that may upon proof of bad faith with actual malice be deprived of its privileged character — called also conditionally privileged communication