denier

¹

[ dih-nahy-er ]

noun

1. a person who denies.
2. a person who refuses to accept the existence, truth, or validity of something despite evidence or general support for it: It makes no sense for an environmental watchdog agency to hire a denier of climate change.

   The writer is a Holocaust denier.

   It makes no sense for an environmental watchdog agency to hire a denier of climate change.

   Election deniers continue to question the integrity of the ballot counts.

denier

²

[ duh-neer den-yer; French duh-nyey ]

noun

1. a unit of weight indicating the fineness of fiber filaments and yarns, both silk and synthetic, and equal to a yarn weighing one gram per each 9,000 meters: used especially in indicating the fineness of women's hosiery.
2. any of various coins issued in French-speaking regions, especially a coin of France, originally of silver but later of copper, introduced in the 8th century and continued until 1794.

denier

¹

noun

1. ˈdɛnɪˌeɪˈdɛnjə a unit of weight used to measure the fineness of silk and man-made fibres, esp when woven into women's tights, etc. It is equal to 1 gram per 9000 metres
2. dəˈnjeɪ-ˈnɪə any of several former European coins of various denominations

denier

²

/ dɪˈnaɪə /

noun

1. a person who denies

Usage Note

The words denier and denialism are used to describe people and positions that are opposed to the validity or veracity of an explanation or narrative put forth by an authority or expert. The words are commonly used in fixed compounds that truncate the name of the official account being called into question. Thus, a denier of climate change is often called a climate denier, and a movement that refuses to accept the integrity or official results of an election is referred to as election denialism. These expressions become fixed in their shortened form, and are often then associated with a specific counternarrative, rather than broadly applying to any and all denial associated with the modifying word (e.g., climate, election, evolution, genocide).

Word History and Origins

Origin of denier¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; deny + -er ¹( def )

Origin of denier²

1375–1425; late Middle English < Old French < Latin dēnārius denarius

Word History and Origins

Origin of denier¹

C15: from Old French: coin, from Latin dēnārius denarius

Example Sentences

In 2018, he brought a right-wing Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, and later tried to expel two fathers who lost children in a mass shooting from a hearing after they objected to a claim he made about gun control.

From BBC

John Podesta, a Biden administration appointee, labelled the incoming president a climate denier and said he would dismantle environmental safeguards.

From BBC

The results promise to upend U.S. climate policy: In addition to returning a climate denier to the White House, voters also gave Republicans control of the Senate, laying the groundwork for attacks on everything from electric vehicles to clean energy funding and bolstering support for the fossil fuel industry.

From Salon

Including the denier in chief who sits atop the GOP ticket.

From Los Angeles Times

This is before we get to some of his greatest antisemitic hits from before this election, like when he dined with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes in 2022, or when he said there were “very fine people” among those chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville at the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, or even before that, when he hired Steve Bannon to be his chief strategist in the White House.

From Slate