from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. The act of refuting.
- n. Something, such as an argument, that refutes someone or something.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An act of refuting or disproving; the overthrowing of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine or theory by argument or countervailing proof; confutation; disproof; evidence of falseness.
- n. A vocal answer to an attack on one's assertions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The act or process of refuting or disproving, or the state of being refuted; proof of falsehood or error; the overthrowing of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine, or theory, by argument or countervailing proof.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of refuting or disproving; the overthrowing of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine, or theory by argument or countervailing proof; confutation; disproof. Refutation is distinguished as direct or ostensive, indirect or apagogical, a priori or a posteriori, according to the kind of reasoning employed.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the act of determining that something is false
- n. the speech act of answering an attack on your assertions
- n. any evidence that helps to establish the falsity of something
Sorry, no etymologies found.
If Voltaire had studied Hume, moreover, he might have learned how futile and inappropriate it is in the long run to examine a religion otherwise than in its most fundamental and comprehensive general ideas, and how narrow and superficial would every philosophic appreciation ultimately find what he called refutation by facts.
Two points I would make in refutation to his comments:
You ground your argument in linguistic logic, and the only refutation is pedantry.
Can you provide a reference for this claim, like an official list or some sort of refutation from a credible source?
By "means nothing" I meant that it pointing out your lack of a refutation is no rebuttal.
January 1, 2008 at 4: 46 pm aeneas, the refutation is simple.
Gabriel, only a pathetic failure who is out of touch with reality would not take them at their word when they tell the world what their 'religion' stands for and what their intentions are, and there is basically no refutation from the islamic "mainstream" (which by the way, I am not sure exists).
#94 – Your refutation is hollow – are you a professor?
As I am certainly no biologist many here may be able to kick some gaping holes into this little theory – and if the refutation is simple enough that it makes sense to me I will be grateful.
How about looking up the word refutation and applying it?