gainsay
Americanverb (used with object)
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to deny, dispute, or contradict.
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to speak or act against; oppose.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gainsay
First recorded in 1250–1300, gainsay is from the Middle English word gainsaien. See again, say 1
Explanation
Gainsay, a verb, means "contradict" or "speak out against." When you challenge authority, you gainsay, as in teachers don't like it when unruly students gainsay them. Gainsay comes from an Old English word that means "contradict" or "say against," as in, "no one dared gainsay the principal, who is well-known for giving detention to students who so much as frown at him." If you know someone who constantly corrects others, tells them that they're wrong, and says, "That's not true," more than anyone else, you have first-hand experience with the art of the gainsay.
Vocabulary lists containing gainsay
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"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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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.
Since June, it’s been harder to gainsay him.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025
As an Episcopal priest, I’d be the last person to gainsay the importance of prayer.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2022
He’s only bringing it up to gainsay it: The best revenge, he argues, is revenge.
From Slate • Feb. 26, 2020
Yet far be it from me to gainsay the delight that many viewers take in “The Princess Bride.”
From The New Yorker • Sep. 20, 2019
Within the ANC, party members J. B. Marks, Edwin Mofutsanyana, Dan Tloome, and David Bopape, among others, were devoted and hardworking, and left nothing to gainsay as freedom fighters.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Definitions 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.
