refute
verbUK /ɹɪˈfjuːt/ · CA, US /ɹɪˈfjut/
Etymology From Latin refūtō (“refute, repudiate”).
1
To prove (something) to be false or incorrect.
- After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus."1791, James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.:
2
Proscribed To deny the truth or correctness of (something); to reject or disagree with an accusation.
- A spokesperson for VARS Technology said: “We completely refute the suggestion that our market-leading ANPR system is unreliable".2025 December 20, Taro Kaneko, “Family ‘banned from more than 1,000 petrol stations’ amid fuel theft row”, in The Guardian:
- Derived terms
- nonrefuted, nonrefuting, self-refute, unrefuted, unrefuting
- Related terms
- refudiate, refusal, refuse, refutability, refutable, refutably, refutal, refutation, refuted, refuter