denial

1. 1.

   the act of refusing to comply (as with a request)

   “it resulted in a complete denial of his privileges”

   Broaderspeech act

   Narrowerabnegationnaysayingnegativerefusaldisavowal
2. 2.

   the act of asserting that something alleged is not true

   Synonymsdisaffirmation

   Broaderassertion

   Narrowernegation
3. 3.

   (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughts

   Broaderdefense mechanism

   psychiatry

4. 4.

   renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others

   Synonymsabnegationself-abnegationself-denialself-renunciation

   Broaderselflessnessrenunciation
5. 5.

   a defendant's answer or plea denying the truth of the charges against him

   “he gave evidence for the defense”

   Synonymsdefensedefencedemurrer

   Broaderdue process

   Narrowerentrapment

   Part oftrial

   law

Other forms of denial

plural

denials·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about denial

What does denial mean?

denial means "the act of refusing to comply (as with a request)". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in denial?

denial has 3 syllables: de-ni-al. The stress falls on "ni". In IPA it is /dɪˈnaɪəl/.

What is another word for denial?

Close synonyms include disaffirmation, abnegation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-renunciation. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is denial a common word?

denial is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.