rebuffal

R1E1B3U1F4F4A1L1

noun

A rebuttal, a statement contradicting another.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounrebuffal (plural rebuffals)

plural rebuffals

  1. A rebuttal, a statement contradicting another.

    That is the easiest ever rebuffal of a challenge I have ever done in my life.

    2020, 11:30 from the start, in No More Jockeys, season 2, episode 7, spoken by Tim Key
    2 more examples

    Voltaire is much more critical of the Système de la Nature, adopting a position much closer to deism and spiritualism , fully aware that too strong a rebuffal of such views would not go down well with his royal correspondents.

    2003 12, Xavier Martin, Human Nature and the French Revolution: From the Enlightenment to the Napoleonic Code, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 21

    This type of rebuffal operates almost as a kind of self-inhibiting mechanism, along similar lines to Bruce Dover's 'anticipatory compliance', which results in offering nothing unwanted in case one is sidelined.

    2022 December 8, Christiane Gerblinger, How Government Experts Self-Sabotage: The Language of the Rebuffed, ANU Press, →ISBN, page 71

Origin

Likely confused blend of rebuff + rebuttal, but possibly rebuff + -al

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

rebuffal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rebuffal

MLA

“rebuffal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rebuffal. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rebuffal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rebuffal.

Source: rebuffal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.