Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Impossible to refute or disprove; incontrovertible.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not refutable; incapable of being refuted or disproved.
  • Synonyms See list under irrefragable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Incapable of being refuted or disproved; indisputable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective undeniable; unable to be disproved or refuted

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective impossible to deny or disprove

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin irrefūtābilis, from in- ("not") + refūtābilis.

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Examples

  • For readers who fail to grasp Mr. Hersh's point from the subtitle alone, his central contention is that there exists no "irrefutable evidence of an ongoing hidden nuclear-weapons program in Iran"—which is surely right, since the word "irrefutable" allows for no ambiguity.

    Iran, Syria—and Seymour Hersh Bret Stephens 2011

  • For readers who fail to grasp Mr. Hersh's point from the subtitle alone, his central contention is that there exists no "irrefutable evidence of an ongoing hidden nuclear-weapons program in Iran"—which is surely right, since the word "irrefutable" allows for no ambiguity.

    Iran, Syria—and Seymour Hersh Bret Stephens 2011

  • KING: Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs on what he calls irrefutable evidence that Iran is supplying arms to the Taliban.

    CNN Transcript Jun 13, 2007 2007

  • These aren't the first accusations but this time the U.S. says it has what it calls irrefutable evidence.

    CNN Transcript Jun 13, 2007 2007

  • Today Obrador showed reporters videotapes of what he calls irrefutable evidence of voting fraud.

    CNN Transcript Jul 10, 2006 2006

  • Mr. Sam Rainsy has now released what he called irrefutable evidences of Vietnam's encroachments, including pictures and maps drawn by independent cartographical experts.

    KI Media 2010

  • Mr. Sam Rainsy has now released what he called irrefutable evidences of Vietnam's encroachments, including pictures and maps drawn by independent cartographical experts.

    KI Media 2010

  • In this mind-blowing, exhaustively researched Cato institute paper by Ohio State University's John Mueller, the case against being afraid of terrorism is laid out in irrefutable logic, backed with credible, documented statistics about terrorism's risks.

    Boing Boing: August 6, 2006 - August 12, 2006 Archives 2006

  • The 1. 7-million-strong Congress of South African Trade Unions declared around the same time that the link between HIV and AIDS was "irrefutable" - a stand mirrored by the South African

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2000

  • Taubes’ book didn’t get the publicity it deserved partly because it’s pretty dense – he was really aiming to document the science and the politics in irrefutable detail, but that made it pretty tough sledding for a popular audience, as I think he acknowledged in some interviews.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Are Carbs Worse than Fat? 2010

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