REFUTATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does refutation mean? 

• REFUTATION (noun)
  The noun REFUTATION has 3 senses:

1. the speech act of answering an attack on your assertions

2. any evidence that helps to establish the falsity of something

3. the act of determining that something is false

  Familiarity information: REFUTATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REFUTATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The speech act of answering an attack on your assertions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

defence; defense; refutation

Context example:

in defense he said the other man started it

Hypernyms ("refutation" is a kind of...):

answer (the speech act of replying to a question)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "refutation"):

confutation (the speech act of refuting conclusively)

rebuttal (the speech act of refuting by offering a contrary contention or argument)

Derivation:

refute (overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any evidence that helps to establish the falsity of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

disproof; falsification; refutation

Hypernyms ("refutation" is a kind of...):

evidence; grounds (your basis for belief or disbelief; knowledge on which to base belief)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "refutation"):

reductio; reductio ad absurdum ((reduction to the absurd) a disproof by showing that the consequences of the proposition are absurd; or a proof of a proposition by showing that its negation leads to a contradiction)

confutation (evidence that refutes conclusively)

counterexample (refutation by example)

Derivation:

refute (prove to be false or incorrect)

refute (overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of determining that something is false

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

disproof; falsification; falsifying; refutal; refutation

Hypernyms ("refutation" is a kind of...):

determination; finding (the act of determining the properties of something, usually by research or calculation)

Derivation:

refute (prove to be false or incorrect)

 Context examples 

Two posts came in, and brought no refutation, public or private.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And in his action I found complete refutation of all Wolf Larsen’s materialism.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Never had he heard such jargon of scholastic philosophy, such fine-drawn distinctions, such cross-fire of major and minor, proposition, syllogism, attack and refutation.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She had previously, in the anticipation of their marriage, been very apprehensive of losing her friend by it; but on being assured that he could have made no attempt of that nature, since he did not even know her to be in Bath, it immediately occurred, that something might be done in her favour by the influence of the woman he loved, and she had been hastily preparing to interest Anne's feelings, as far as the observances due to Mr Elliot's character would allow, when Anne's refutation of the supposed engagement changed the face of everything; and while it took from her the new-formed hope of succeeding in the object of her first anxiety, left her at least the comfort of telling the whole story her own way.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)