Refute vs Falsify - What's the difference?
refute | falsify |
To prove (something) to be false or incorrect.
*
To deny the truth or correctness of (something).
*
To alter so as to make false; to make incorrect.
* Spenser
To misrepresent.
To prove to be false.
* Shakespeare
* Addison
To counterfeit; to forge.
(finance) To show, in accounting, (an item of charge inserted in an account) to be wrong.
(obsolete) To baffle or escape.
* Samuel Butler
(obsolete) To violate; to break by falsehood.
In transitive terms the difference between refute and falsify
is that refute is to deny the truth or correctness of (something) while falsify is to counterfeit; to forge.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.
Synonyms
* : debunk, disprove, rebut * (deny the truth or correctness): deny, gainsay, rebut, reject, repudiateAntonyms
* : demonstrate, prove * (deny the truth or correctness): accept, embracefalsify
English
Verb
(en-verb)- to falsify a record or document
- The Irish bards use to forge and falsify everything as they list, to please or displease any man.
- By how much better than my word I am, / By so much shall I falsify men's hope.
- Jews and Pagans united all their endeavors, under Julian the apostate, to baffle and falsify the prediction.
- to falsify coin
- (Story)
- (Daniell)
- For disputants (as swordsmen use to fence / With blunted foyles) engage with blunted sense; / And as th' are wont to falsify a blow, / Use nothing else to pass upon a foe
- to falsify one's faith or word
- (Sir Philip Sidney)