# denial

Pronunciation: say "di-NY-uhl" /dɪˈnaɪ.əl/

## Noun

1. A refusal to believe that a real problem exists or is taking place.
   - Simple: A refusal to believe that a problem is real or is happening.
   - _For months he remained in denial about his failing health._
   - _The company's denial of the safety risks delayed any real action._
2. A statement asserting that something is not true.
   - Simple: A statement saying that something is not true.
   - _The company released a firm denial of the allegations within hours._
   - _Despite his repeated denials, the evidence kept piling up._
3. The act of refusing, or failing, to give or allow something that someone has asked for or wants.
   - Simple: A refusal to give or allow something that someone asks for.
   - _The denial of medical care to inmates sparked a lawsuit._
   - _Repeated denials of her visa application forced the family apart._
4. A psychological defense mechanism in which a person refuses to accept the truth of a painful fact or prospect.
   - Simple: A way the mind protects itself by refusing to accept a painful truth.
   - _Therapists often see denial in patients confronting a terminal diagnosis._
   - _Grief can begin with denial, the mind shielding itself from a loss it cannot yet face._
5. The act of refusing to acknowledge that one is to blame for having done something wrong.
   - Simple: A refusal to admit that you did something wrong.
   - _The executive's denial of any role in the fraud collapsed under scrutiny._
   - _Years of denial ended when he finally apologized to those he had harmed._
6. A disowning or disavowal of someone or something.
   - Simple: An act of saying that you have no connection to someone or something.
   - _His denial of his former mentor surprised everyone who knew them._
   - _The apostle's threefold denial became one of the story's central moments._
7. The rejection or distortion of well-established historical facts or their accepted interpretation.
   - Simple: A refusal to accept well-known historical facts or the accepted account of them.
   - _Genocide denial often relies on cherry-picked sources and forged documents._
   - _His book traces the spread of denial about events that are exhaustively documented._
8. In logic, the negation of a proposition.
   - Simple: In logic, a statement that says another statement is not true.
   - _The denial of a true proposition is itself false._
   - _A proof by contradiction assumes the denial of what it sets out to establish._

## Origin

Formed from the verb 'deny' combined with the suffix '-al'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/denial (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).