deniability

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noun de·ni·abil·i·ty \ dē-ˌnī-ə-ˈbi-lə-tē \

Definition of deniability

:the ability to deny something especially on the basis of being officially uninformed

Recent Examples of deniability from the Web

But on Wednesday evening, Zuckerberg’s plausible deniability—which was never all that plausible, given that no one has ever toured a factory without declaring a plan to run for higher office six months later—finally became implausible.

— alex shephard, New Republic, "Oh my god, Mark Zuckerberg is serious about this whole running for president thing.," 3 Aug. 2017
There are limits to our ability to assign attribution for incidents in cybersecurity, which suggests that future information operations may be able to operate under the cloak of relative anonymity - or at least plausible deniability.

— chicagotribune.com, "The Iranian cyberthreat is real," 26 July 2017
He's got plausible deniability that anything unsavory happened — after all, who is going to contradict that?

— aaron blake, Washington Post, "Why did Trump meet secretly with Putin? Here are three theories.," 19 July 2017
According to Daniel, one of two Americans who work at Desire Pearl selling vacation packages, the obfuscation allows for a level of discretion, even deniability.

— davy rothbart, GQ, "Inside the Clothing-Optional Resort of Your Swinging Dreams," 18 July 2017
The Trump campaign’s plausible deniability was never all that plausible to begin with, but these revelations have smashed it to dust.

— alex shephard, New Republic, "Donald Trump Jr. just blew apart his father’s “no collusion” case.," 11 July 2017
The Process was transparent but Hinkie always left himself, and as extension the NBA, the means for plausible deniability.

— john smallwood, Philly.com, "In the NBA, tanking is here to stay | John Smallwood," 7 June 2017
This provides a measure of plausible deniability for actions that the Kremlin does not want to be linked to publicly.

— andrew higgins, New York Times, "Maybe Private Russian Hackers Meddled in Election, Putin Says," 1 June 2017
Generally, lawmakers like to keep their personal opinions of one another to themselves—or, at the very least, to express them with enough subtlety to ensure plausible deniability later.

— laura bradley, VanityFair.com, "Who Has Better Ted Cruz Insults—Al Franken or Samantha Bee?," 1 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'deniability.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.