1
as in to deny
to declare not to be true
he steadfastly disowned that he was having an affair
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to refuse
to refuse to acknowledge as one's own or as one's responsibility
the dictatorial father angrily disowned his rebellious son
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of disown
When Mary won’t give up the baby, she’s disowned by patriarch Whitelaw (Ed Harris) and exiled to New Jersey from her family’s palatial Long Island estate.
—
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 18 Feb. 2026
Becket is broke, disowned and circling a family fortune that never wanted him.
—Ana Gutierrez, Austin American Statesman, 18 Feb. 2026
They may be cut off from financial resources, disowned, or stripped of personal property and communal safety nets.
—Literary Hub, 18 Feb. 2026
In September 2025, it was revealed that Ferguson sent an email to Epstein apologizing for publicly disowning him in a March 2011 interview with the Evening Standard.
—Stephanie Petit, PEOPLE, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for disown
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 18 Feb. 2026
Becket is broke, disowned and circling a family fortune that never wanted him.
—Ana Gutierrez, Austin American Statesman, 18 Feb. 2026
They may be cut off from financial resources, disowned, or stripped of personal property and communal safety nets.
—Literary Hub, 18 Feb. 2026
In September 2025, it was revealed that Ferguson sent an email to Epstein apologizing for publicly disowning him in a March 2011 interview with the Evening Standard.
—Stephanie Petit, PEOPLE, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for disown
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disown
Verb
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Sorokin was locked in from the drop of the puck, denying Colin Blackwell on a shorthanded breakaway 10 minutes in and making a handful of other 10-bell saves on quality scoring chances in the first period alone.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
27 Mar. 2026
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Omar, 38, eventually married Hirsi legally in a 2018 ceremony before the two divorced after it was alleged that Omar was having an affair with her chief fundraiser Tim Mynett, who denied the claim.—
Emily Hallas,
The Washington Examiner,
27 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Increasingly, judges are opting to sanction lawyers who submit briefs tainted by AI errors, Moylan said, sometimes fining those who refuse to admit wrongdoing or referring them to their state’s bar association for disciplinary actions.—
Sharon Bernstein,
Sacbee.com,
1 Apr. 2026
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Like the impish anti-romance that crumbles around it, the movie’s twist is both transgressive enough to be pleased with itself and also rooted in a reality that refuses to be dismissed as a bad joke.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
31 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Olsson rejects The Athletic’s offer to take cover inside the coffee shop.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
1 Apr. 2026
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Last week, for example, the UK government rejected plans by a Chinese company, Ming Yang, to invest in a Scottish factory to produce wind turbine blades, citing national security reasons.—
Andy Browne,
semafor.com,
31 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Jones, who lived in San Francisco for years before moving to Napa, refuted the insinuation of carpetbagging.—
Jake Goodrick,
Sacbee.com,
27 Mar. 2026
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Saatchi, at least, welcomes pushback — and at times doesn’t even refute it.—
David Canfield,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Disown.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disown. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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