denial
noun
Simple meaning
A refusal or failure to provide or grant something that is requested or desired.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihnyuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈnaɪəl
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.
noun
A refusal or failure to provide or grant something that is requested or desired.
Refusal to believe that a problem exists.
Refusal to admit responsibility for wrongdoing.
An assertion of untruth.
Negationism, denialism of historical facts or accepted interpretation.
A disownment or disavowal
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A refusal or failure to provide or grant something that is requested or desired.
Used this way, denial 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 denial
- “It resulted in a complete denial of his privileges.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The trait of practicing self discipline.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.