negation
/nɪˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The contradiction or denial of something: there should be confirmation—or negation—of the findings...
- In Literary Theory and the Claims of History, Satya Mohanty posits a hermeneutics of affirmation in contrast to Jacques Derrida's hermeneutics of negation.
- I have long thought that Levine's negations and denials were in fact forms of affirmation and acceptance, ways of warding off sentimentality and bad faith.
- Apophasis transcends both affirmation and negation, refuting in both any possible attainment of understanding beyond the limitation of conceptual analysis.
Synonyms
denial, contradiction, repudiation, disproving, refutation, refuting, rebuttal, countering, disclaiming;
nullification, cancellation, voiding, revocation, rescinding, abrogation, repeal, retraction;
Law disaffirmation
rare disproval
1.1 Grammar Denial of the truth of a clause or sentence, typically involving the use of a negative word (e.g. not, no, never) or a word or affix with negative force (e.g. nothing, non-).The implicit negation in words like fail and ignore may be especially difficult to untangle....
- What about sentences containing operators like negation and conjunction?
- At this point, the intensifier is not longer a free agent, but has become a sort of contractual associate of the negation.
1.2 [count noun] Logic A proposition whose assertion specifically denies the truth of another proposition: the negation of A is, briefly, ‘not A’...
- E propositions, or universal negations take the form: No S are P.
- And with negations of conditionals and conditionals in antecedents, we saw, the problem is reversed: we assert conditionals which we would not believe if we construed them truth-functionally.
- An antinomy is the peculiar fallacy which enables us to derive both a proposition and its negation from the same premiss.
1.3 Mathematics Inversion: [count noun]: these formulae and their negations...
- Hume notes that we cannot imagine or conceive of the negations of typical mathematical theorems, but this seems to be a weak hold on the necessity of mathematics.
2The absence or opposite of something actual or positive: evil is not merely the negation of goodness...
- It is the opposite or negation of the first stage, and hence is known as the antithesis.
- It is merely the negation of something else, and therefore an empty formal category.
- To different degrees (as illustrated in the inferential results below) MPs tend to stand for positive usage of a value and oppose the negation of these values.
Synonyms
opposite, reverse, antithesis, contrary, inverse, converse;
absence, lack, want, deficiency
Derivatives
negatory
- ‘I - no, I don't think - no, that's completely negatory, Gypsy,’ he stammered, blushing again.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin negatio(n-), from the verb negare 'deny' (see negate).