refute

English

WOTD – 24 November 2007

Etymology

From Latin refūtō

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US): enPR: rə-fyo͞ot, IPA^(key): /rɪˈfjuːt/, /rəˈfjut/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: re‧fute
• Rhymes: -uːt

Verb

refute (third-person singular simple present refutes, present participle refuting, simple past and past participle refuted)

1. (transitive) To prove (something) to be false or incorrect.
   • 1791, James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.:

     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.

2. (transitive) To deny the truth or correctness of (something).
   • 1791, James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.:

     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."

Usage notes

The second meaning of refute (to deny the truth of) is proscribed as erroneous by some (compare Merriam Webster,1994). An alternative term with such a meaning is repudiate, which means to reject or refuse to acknowledge, but without the implication of justification. However, this distinction does not exist in the original Latin refūtō (“oppose, resist, rebut”), which can apply to both senses.

Synonyms

• (prove (something) to be false): debunk, disprove, rebut
• (deny the truth or correctness): deny, gainsay, rebut, reject, repudiate

Antonyms

• (prove (something) to be false): demonstrate, prove
• (deny the truth or correctness): accept, embrace

Related terms

• refutability
• refutable
• refutably
• refutal

• refutation
• refuted
• refuter

Translations

to prove (something) to be false or incorrect

• Armenian: հերքել (herkʿel)
• Catalan: refutar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反駁, 反驳 (zh) (fǎnbó)

• Czech: vyvrátit (cs)
• Dutch: weerleggen (nl), refuteren
• Finnish: osoittaa (fi), vääräksi
• French: réfuter (fr)
• German: widerlegen (de)
• Hungarian: cáfol (hu)
• Japanese: 反駁する (ja) (はんばくする, hanbaku suru)
• Malayalam: ദൂഷണം (ml) (dUsham), നിരാകരിക്കൽ (niraakarikkal)

• Norwegian: motbevise
• Portuguese: refutar (pt)
• Romanian: refuta (ro)
• Russian: доказывать ложность impf (dokázyvat’ lóžnost’), доказывать несостоятельность impf (dokázyvat’ nesostojátel’nost’)
• Sanskrit: दूषणः (sa) m (dUshanaH)
• Serbo-Croatian: opovrgnuti
• Slovene: ovreči
• Spanish: refutar (es), rebatir (es)
• Swedish: motbevisa, vederlägga (sv)
• Turkish: aksini ispatlamak (tr), delilleri çürütmek (tr), yanlışlığını kanıtlamak (tr)

to deny the truth or correctness of (something)

• Armenian: հերքել (herkʿel)
• Dutch: weigeren (nl)
• French: rejeter (fr), contester (fr), chicaner (fr), récuser (fr)
• German: anfechten (de)
• Hungarian: tagad (hu)

• Portuguese: negar (pt)
• Russian: опровергать (ru) impf (oprovergát’), опровергнуть (ru) pf (oprovérgnut’)
• Spanish: refutar (es), rebatir (es)
• Turkish: karşı çıkmak (tr), reddetmek (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: опровергавам (bg) (oprovergavam)
• French: réfuter (fr)

• Italian: confutare (it)
• Portuguese: refutar (pt)

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Spanish

Verb

refute

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of refutar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of refutar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of refutar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of refutar.