deny
/dəˈnaɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.34 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To refuse to give or grant something to someone.
verb
To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, etc.; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.
Example Sentences
- "I wanted to go to the party, but I was denied."
- "'Do! pray do! I shall be the most miserable of men if you don't. You cannot be so cruel as to deny me a favour so easily granted and yet so highly prized!' pleaded he as ardently as if his life depended on it."
- "The proposition that foreigners may be depriving British workers of their cod is politically potent. […] This argument, of course, denies the long British history of overfishing and the fact that the dread Spanish supertrawlers, which are now so universally denounced, wre a British invention."
- "to deny a rumour to deny an allegation"
- "I deny that I was at the party."
- "Everyone knows he committed the crime, but he still denies it."
Etymology
From Middle English denyen, from Old French denoier (“to deny, to repudiate”) (French dénier), from Latin denegare (“to deny, to refuse”), from de- (“away”) and negare (“to refuse”), the latter ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *né (“no, not”). Doublet of denegate.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₁eǵ-, denyen, denoier, denegare, *né
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dəˈnaɪ/
- British English: /dɪˈnaɪ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
denies (present, singular)
denying (participle, present)
denied (participle, past)
denied (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
denied (first person, past)
denyed (archaic, first person)
deniest (archaic, present)
denied (past, second person)
denyed (archaic, past)
denieth (archaic, present)