Other Word Forms
- confutative adjective
- unconfutative adjective
Etymology
Origin of confutation
1425–75; late Middle English confutacioun (< Middle French ) < Latin confūtātiōn- (stem of confūtātiō ), equivalent to confūtāt ( us ) silenced (past participle of confūtāre; confute, -ate 1 ) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
A confutation is the act of refuting someone's point forcefully. Accused criminals must offer confutation if they hope to be found innocent. If you know the verb confute — which means to overwhelm through an argument — this noun will be a no-brainer: it refers to the act of confuting, or a statement that confutes. The meaning is not that far removed from refutation, with which confutation shares a Latin root. A confutation proves that another idea is false or nonsensical. People who argue for a living, like lawyers, are masters of confutation.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Almost simultaneously Artist Thomas Gainsborough produced his famed Blue Boy, intentionally or not a complete confutation of haughty Artist Reynolds.
From Time Magazine Archive
The confutation of the Experiment in the Ebany.
From Discourse on Floating Bodies by Galilei, Galileo
Mr. Hammerton said that she was a confutation of the oak and vine theory, that he had stood and stood to be entwined about, but that she would never entwine.
From Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline A Story of the Development of a Young Girl's Life by Drinkwater, Jennie M.
Supply and demand, cost of production, the capitalization theory, the imputation theory—the general laws of the concatenations and interrelations of prices—are quite adequate for the confutation of the quantity theory.
From The Value of Money by Anderson, Benjamin M.
In other respects, the tract De Senectute almost seems a confutation of the first book of the Tusculan Questions, which is chiefly occupied in showing the wretchedness of long-protracted existence.
From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume II by Dunlop, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
