confute, refute. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993

Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

confute, refute (vv.)


Both mean “to deny something or prove its falsity”; perhaps because of its archaic sense “to confound,” confute may be a bit stronger than refute, but it is also less frequently seen or heard, especially in Informal writing and at Conversational levels.	1