repudiation

[ri-pyoo-dee-ey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act of repudiating.

2. the state of being repudiated.

3. refusal, as by a state or municipality, to pay a lawful debt.

Other Word Forms

• repudiatory adjective
• nonrepudiation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of repudiation¹

1535–45; < Latin repudiātiōn- (stem of repudiātiō ), equivalent to repudiāt ( us ) ( repudiate ) + -iōn- -ion

Example Sentences

The 88-page judgment was a repudiation of the SNP's interpretation of the law.

Read more on BBC

Two days after the game, Clark, like she did several times last year, gave her usual surface-level repudiation of any hatred around her, the Fever and the WNBA.

Read more on Salon

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a separate lawsuit challenging the same order late Monday, with executive director Anthony D. Romero calling it “unconstitutional” and “a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

And, in a repudiation of Trump’s charge that China runs the canal, Mulino denied that any country except Panama directed operations.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In 2017, Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of the writers group PEN America, warned of Trump’s “repudiation of the American ideals — grounded in the Enlightenment — of self-expression, knowledge, dissent, criticism, and truth.”

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• abrogation 
• cancellation 
• disapproval 
• disavowal