refutation

noun

ref·u·ta·tion ˌre-fyu̇-ˈtā-shən

Synonyms of refutation next

: the act or process of refuting

Example Sentences

these are hard scientific facts against which there can be no reasonable refutation

Recent Examples on the Web The transposition of a single line works as an amplification, not a refutation. —

Rod Smith, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2023 In his 1858 debates with Douglas, Lincoln acquired a national reputation through his compelling refutations of Douglas’s embrace of Taney’s whites-only Constitution. —

Simon Lazarus, The New Republic, 21 Apr. 2023 A couple of the entries below will bend the rules to encapsulate several titles, either a reflection of critical spinelessness or a refutation of the idea that this year was anything but another flagship one for gaming. —

Clayton Purdom, Chron, 8 Dec. 2022 The Boys being The Boys, all these relatively nuanced ideas still culminate in a single massive, bloody battle between Supes that’s more an exaggeration than a refutation of the weightless CG violence served up by any Marvel third act. —

Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 June 2022 The election of Donald Trump was itself a refutation of previous Republican administrations, but the excision of Cheney is a sign that the party has moved on from the beacon-of-freedom ideals that dominated the party for decades, arguably dating back to Dwight Eisenhower. —

Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, 12 May 2021 Nevertheless, the media have promoted his work as a refutation of the claim that the wildfire spread of transgender identity is an example of social contagion—a phenomenon in which members of a group (mostly young and female) mutually influence one another’s emotions and behavior. —

Leor Sapir, WSJ, 17 Aug. 2022 There are no refutations of any of the many specifics in Hindenburg’s 17,000-word report, and there are, like, a lot of specifics. —

Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 23 Mar. 2023 The establishment of the commission — whose head is Larry Arnn, president of the private Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan and an ally of former education secretary Betsy DeVos — was seen by critics in part as a refutation of the New York Times’s 1619 Project that began in 2019. —

Valerie Strauss, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Jan. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'refutation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.