But for every study that shows acid rain is damaging frogs, another one refutes it.—Emily Yoffe, New York Times Magazine, 13 Dec. 1992And it violates the basic tenet of historical method: that the historian be alert to the negative instances that would refute his thesis and to alternative explanations that would be more plausible than his own.—Gertrude Himmelfarb, The New History and the Old, 1987It is not necessary to refute such an argument point by point …—Denis Goulet, Center Magazine, May 1969We refute these aspersions whether they come from our best friends or our worst foes.—Sir Winston Churchill, address in House of Commons, 18 Jan. 1945,
in Nathan Aus, ed., Voices of History 1945–46, 1946
The lawyer refuted the testimony of the witness.
He refutes the notion that he's planning to retire soon.
She refuted the allegations against her.
Recent Examples on the WebOpenAI refuted the claim but pledged to change the sound anyway out of respect for her wishes.—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 20 June 2024 These blood tests are for nonspecific markers, and cannot tell if and where a person may have cancer, so at least one imaging test, usually a PET-CT scan, is needed to confirm (or refute) the positive test.—Sanket S. Dhruva and Rita F. Redberg, STAT, 11 June 2024 Virologists have effectively refuted claims that the virus could only have come about through genetic manipulation.—F.d. Flam, Twin Cities, 7 June 2024 On Tuesday, June 4, the TikTok star refuted claims made by her family and others who have spoken out against Robert Shinn’s 7M organization, the subject of the series.—Angel Saunders, Peoplemag, 5 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for refute
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'refute.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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