disowns

verb

present tense third-person singular of disown
1
as in denies
to declare not to be true he steadfastly disowned that he was having an affair

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in refuses
to refuse to acknowledge as one's own or as one's responsibility the dictatorial father angrily disowned his rebellious son

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of disowns When Lear disowns her, the King of France accepts Cordelia as his wife and takes her back to his homeland. — Langdon Hammer, New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disowns
  1. denies
  2. refuses
  3. rejects
  4. refutes
Verb
  • Six women allege offenses dating from 1999 to 2009, and Brand denies the allegations vehemently.
    — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 2 Nov. 2026
  • El-Sayed denies any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and has publicly disavowed the group.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of denies
Verb
  • The Western Illinois recruit thrives on meting out punishment and refuses to go down easily.
    — Patrick Z. McGavin, Chicago Tribune, 8 Nov. 2026
  • To join the tide of anti-intellectualism that refuses to take this seriously or rise to the challenge of doing so, as Tate has done with this exhibition, is a grave shame.
    — Eliza Goodpasture, ARTnews.com, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of refuses
Verb
  • The Joint List rejects Zionist parties that define Israel as a Jewish state.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 7 Nov. 2026
  • However, the Wisne plaintiffs’ antitrust case ends if the court rejects their relevant market.
    — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of rejects
Verb
  • The governor’s campaign responded to a request for comment Sunday, saying a witness refutes that the phone was touched.
    — Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 1 Nov. 2026
  • The Mad King, however, refutes the legitimacy of any kind of prophecy, even going so far to reject the notion of destiny.
    — Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of refutes

Browse Nearby Words

disownments
disowns
disparage
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Disowns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disowns. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All