irrefragable
/ɪˈɹɛfɹəɡəb(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
5
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Which cannot be refuted; clearly right, incontrovertible, indisputable, irrefutable.
Example Sentences
- "Beſide, what methodicall artiſt would allow the encomium of the foxe in the prayſe of the aſſe, unleſſe I would proove by irrefragable demonſtration, that the falſe fox was a true aſſe: as I once heard a learned phyſician affirme, if a gooſe were a fox, he was a fox."
- "He knew what's what, and that's as high / As Metaphysick Wit can fly, / In School Divinity as able / As he that hight Irrefragable; […]"
- "In this Kings reign flouriſhed in England, the Irrefragable Doctor Alexander de Hales, who was School-Maſter to the Angelic Dr. Thomas Aquinas."
- "This is the way to end the vexatious Queſtions about them [the Kingdom of the Picts], being taken out of the moſt authentick Records of Ireland, which are of ſuch irrefragable Authority, That ſome are perſuaded, had they been known to [William] Camden, he would never have diſputed the matter. And ſo I think too. But this irrefragable Authority is that of the Pſalter of Caſhel; […]"
- "[A]ll the preſent compoſers of French comic operas imitate the Italian ſtyle, […] I wiſh this may not, ſometimes, happen in England; but, however that may be, it is certainly an irrefragable proof of the ſuperiority of that melody which is become the common muſical language of all Europe: […]"
- "Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff who managed the home farm which supplied the house and stables, and showed him that it was necessary to make a thorough investigation and change of system."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin irrefrāgābilis (“irrefragable”) + English -able (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘able or fit to be done’). Irrefrāgābilis is derived from Latin ir- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’)) + refrāgārī + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a capacity or worth of being acted upon); while refrāgārī is the present active infinitive of refrāgor (“to oppose, resist; to gainsay, thwart”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + fragor (“a breaking, shattering; a crash; din, uproar”) (from frangō (“to break, shatter”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”))), formed as an antonym of suffrāgōr, the first-person singular present passive indicative of suffrāgō (“to support; to vote for”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰreg-, ir-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪˈɹɛfɹəɡəb(ə)l/
- British English: /ɪˈɹɛfɹəɡəb(ə)l/