refute

From Latin refūtō (“refute, repudiate”).

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

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• Hyphenation: re‧fute
• Rhymes: -uːt

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. 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."

2. (transitive, proscribed) To deny the truth or correctness of (something).

• 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.
• Refute is also often confused with rebut; a rebuttal, in formal debate terms, is a counter-refutation, and it also has a specific legal sense, though like refutation, the word has taken on the informal and disputed meaning of denial.

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

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

• self-refute

• Fuerte, feuter, feutre

refute

1. inflection of refutar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• refeut, reffute, refuit, refut, refutt, refuyt, refyte

From Old French refuite, from refuir (“to flee”). Compare refuge.

• IPA^(key): /rɛˈfiu̯t(ə)/

refute (uncountable)

1. refuge (state of protection or comfort)
2. refuge (place of protection or comfort)
3. A protector or comforter.

• “refūt(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

refute

1. inflection of refutar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

refute

1. inflection of refutar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative