Other forms: denials
A denial is a statement that something is not true. Issue a denial, a flat denial, in denial about it.
In denial is a different thing from denying: it means refusing to accept a truth about yourself rather than making a false statement, and the phrase came out of psychotherapy into ordinary speech. A non-denial denial sounds like a denial and denies nothing.
1noundenialA statement that something is not true.
“The minister issued a firm denial of reports that he was about to resign.”
denial is a statement.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁eǵ-
Proto-Indo-European
*né — no, not
Latin
denegare — to deny, to refuse
Old French
denoier — to deny, to repudiate
Middle English
denyen
English
deny
English, today
denial
Built from
From deny + -al. deny comes from Middle English denyen, from Old French denoier (“to deny, to repudiate”) (French dénier), from Latin denegare (“to deny, to refuse”), from de- (“away”) and negare (“to refuse”), the latter ultimately from Proto-Indo-European né (“no, not”). a doublet of denegate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA