Disavow vs Refute - What's the difference?
disavow | refute | Related terms |
To refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown.
To deny; to show the contrary of; to disprove.
To prove (something) to be false or incorrect.
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To deny the truth or correctness of (something).
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Disavow is a related term of refute.
As verbs the difference between disavow and refute
is that disavow is to refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown while refute is .disavow
English
Verb
(en verb)- He was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime.
- Because of her dissatisfaction, she now disavows the merits of fascism.
Quotations
* 1809 — *: These considerations not having restrained the British Government from disavowing the arrangement by virtue of which its orders in council were to be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial intercourse having thus not taken place, it necessarily became a question of equal urgency and importance whether the act prohibiting that intercourse was not to be considered as remaining in legal force. * 1884 — *: In a still more obscure passage he now desires to disavow the Circular or aristocratic tendencies with which some critics have naturally credited him. * 1901 — , ch 12 *: It came to me as an absolute, for a moment an overwhelming shock. It seemed as though it wasn't a face, as though it must needs be a mask, a horror, a deformity, that would presently be disavowed or explained.Synonyms
* (to refuse to own) abjure, deny, disclaim, disown, reject * (to deny or show the contrary of) deny, disprove, impugn, reject, repudiateAntonyms
* (to refuse to own) accept, own up * (to deny or show the contrary of) accept, proveAnagrams
*refute
English
Verb
(refut)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 , which can apply to both senses.