verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To prove to be false or erroneous; to confute; to refute. transitive

   "disprove a theory"

2. 2
   prove to be false wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

confuterefuteabjureanswerassert the contrarybelie

Antonyms

All antonyms

proveshowvalidate

Example

More examples

"Inability to disprove a theory does not mean it is right."

Etymology

From Middle English disproven, dispreven, from Old French desprover, from des- + prover, equivalent to dis- + prove.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.