Is the slander of chaste women restricted to saying "You adulteress" to a married woman, or does it include broader meanings?

The forms of slander (qadhf) are not limited to a specific word, as jurists have defined it as accusing someone of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse) or denying parentage. The Shafi'is added, "in a derogatory context." Slandering someone with zina or liwāṭ (sodomy), or testifying to it without complete evidence, is considered a major sin.

There is no connection between iḥṣān (being chaste/married) and marriage concerning the ḥadd (punishment) for slander. Here, the muḥṣan (the slandered person who is chaste) is one who possesses five characteristics: free, Muslim, sane, chaste from zina, and capable of sexual intercourse (both as penetrator and penetrated).

This status is attained when a boy reaches ten years of age and a girl reaches nine, and puberty is not a condition. If some of these characteristics are absent in the slandered person, the slanderer is subject to discretionary punishment (ta'zīr) but not the ḥadd. If the slandered person, being an adult, demands the ḥadd, and the slanderer is an adult, sane, and acting voluntarily, the judge will impose the ḥadd punishment for slander on him, which is eighty lashes.