debunk
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihbuhngkSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈbʌŋk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something.
noun
informal
A debunking; the act by which something is debunked.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something.
Used this way, debunk is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use debunk
- “The physicist debunked the psychic's claims.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The exposure of falseness or pretensions.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.