negation

UK/nɪˈɡeɪʃn̩/US/nɪˈɡeɪʃn̩/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,973 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: negations

Negation is the denial of a statement. The negation of the claim, double negation, logical negation.

In logic it is an operation with an exact meaning: the negation of a true statement is false and the reverse, and negating a negation returns the original. In grammar it is how a language says no, which differs enormously between them.

Definitions of negation

1nounnegationThe denial of a statement.C1
“The minister's statement was a flat negation of everything the report had said.”

negation is a denial.

Where it comes from

Latin negatio comes from negare, to deny.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₁eǵ-
Latin
negātiō — a denial; negative word
Old French
negacion
Middle English
negacioun
English, today
negation

From Middle English negacioun, from Old French negacion, from Latin negātiō (“a denial; negative word”). Morphologically negate + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Logic & Argument

Practise this word

negation in the wild

The rules can be expressed in English as: The negation of "A and B" is the same as "not A or not B".
De Morgan's laws
An operand of a negation is called a negand or negatum.
Negation
Multiple negation is the more general term referring to the occurrence of more than one negative in a clause.
Double negative
Languages where multiple negatives affirm each other are said to have negative concord or emphatic negation.
Double negative
In grammar and linguistics, a polarity item is a lexical item that is associated with affirmation or negation.
Polarity item

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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