Meanings
present singular third person disconfirms · participle present disconfirming · participle past disconfirmed · past disconfirmed
- transitiveTo establish the falsity of a claim or belief; to show or to tend to show that a theory or hypothesis is not valid.
As a result, if facts disconfirm the officially sanctioned theoretical vision, they are subordinated.
2016 September 14, Paul Romer, “The Trouble with Macroeconomics”, in Working paper, page 151 more example
The empirical data obtained in a test—or, as we shall prefer to say, the observation sentences describing those data—may then either confirm or disconfirm the given hypothesis, or they may be neutral with respect to it.
1943, Carl G. Hempel, “A Purely Syntactical Definition of Confirmation”, in The Journal of Symbolic Logic, volume 8, number 4, page 122Synonyms: infirm
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo establish the falsity of a claim or belief; to show or to tend to show that a theory or hypothesis is not valid.
Origin
- Latindis-
- Old Frenchdes-
- Latindis-
- Middle Englishdis-
- Englishdis-
- Englishconfirm
- Englishdisconfirm
Translations
Danish afkræfte
- afkræfteto establish the falsity of a claim or belief
Portuguese desconfirmar
- desconfirmarto establish the falsity of a claim or belief
Cite this entry
disconfirm. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disconfirm
“disconfirm.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disconfirm. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “disconfirm,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disconfirm.
Source: disconfirm on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.