deniable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of deniable
Explanation
When you’re doing something you don't necessarily want to own up to, something you may want to deny ever happened, you can try to create a cloud of uncertainty and make it deniable. Secret government agencies are adept at covering their tracks so their actions remain deniable. An intelligence bureau may work to encourage a coup, but by working through spies and operatives, the agency tries to keep its role secret and deniable. If you're addicted to late-night scenes of gluttony with chocolate-chip cookies, you may want to keep that secret deniable by creating a phantom aunt with a special fondness for cookies.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The approach up until a couple years ago had been to clear them out, but it’s now no longer deniable that that doesn’t solve the problem,” he told the BBC.
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2024
Perhaps, some analysts suggested, it marked the demise of a nettlesome character whose usefulness — as a deniable military asset, international fixer and pro-Kremlin master of the media dark arts — had run its course.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
It's also leaderless and therefore easily deniable, allowing it to proliferate in spaces designed to be escapist and unserious.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2022
But intelligence sharing is considered a safe form of help because it is invisible, or, at least, deniable.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2022
It is not deniable that the Japanese have good reason to stand off for strict examination the ships of other nations that call at their ports.
From The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, Including the Ladrones, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico The Eldorado of the Orient by Murat Halstead
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
