refute
to claim that something is wrong
TRANSLATION
refute = etwas widerlegen, abstreiten --- GOOGLE INDEX refute: approximately 3,300,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Apple REFUTES Italian tax fraud claims
(Times of India article headline)
---
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to REFUTE.
(19th century American humorist Josh Billings)
(Times of India article headline)
---
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to REFUTE.
(19th century American humorist Josh Billings)
Did you
know?
refute
verb
- deny or contradict (a statement or accusation)
- prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false
(Oxford English Dictionaries)
---
Refute is the from the Middle French réfuter (16th century) and directly from the Latin refutare, to "drive back, disprove, resist, oppose." Refutare is from re (back) + futare (beat).
The original meaning of refute was "to prove wrong," a sense that is still in use. There has been a subtle shift in meaning towards "to deny" however. These days, newspapers are full of stories quoting people (often politicians) making public allegations against others (often political enemies). The accused then feels compelled to respond by refuting the statements.
Sometimes the accused attempts to prove that the accusations are false, but more often than not the "refutation" is simply a denial. Refute has to be understood in its context to determine if it is being used in the sense of proving something to be false or just denying that it’s accurate. That can sometimes be a fine line.
A very nice sounding word that stems from the same root is "irrefutable," meaning impossible to refute or disprove. Scientists especially love to talk about "irrefutable proof" in support of their theories, not to mention that lawyers enjoy presenting "irrefutable evidence" in courts of law.
---
SYNONYMS
disprove, rebut, repudiate, disclaim, dispute, contradict
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"His illogical argument was quite easy to refute."
verb
- deny or contradict (a statement or accusation)
- prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false
(Oxford English Dictionaries)
---
Refute is the from the Middle French réfuter (16th century) and directly from the Latin refutare, to "drive back, disprove, resist, oppose." Refutare is from re (back) + futare (beat).
The original meaning of refute was "to prove wrong," a sense that is still in use. There has been a subtle shift in meaning towards "to deny" however. These days, newspapers are full of stories quoting people (often politicians) making public allegations against others (often political enemies). The accused then feels compelled to respond by refuting the statements.
Sometimes the accused attempts to prove that the accusations are false, but more often than not the "refutation" is simply a denial. Refute has to be understood in its context to determine if it is being used in the sense of proving something to be false or just denying that it’s accurate. That can sometimes be a fine line.
A very nice sounding word that stems from the same root is "irrefutable," meaning impossible to refute or disprove. Scientists especially love to talk about "irrefutable proof" in support of their theories, not to mention that lawyers enjoy presenting "irrefutable evidence" in courts of law.
---
SYNONYMS
disprove, rebut, repudiate, disclaim, dispute, contradict
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"His illogical argument was quite easy to refute."
