Other forms: rebuttals
A rebuttal is the answer that argues back, not a flat denial but a reply with reasons. A minister spends twenty minutes on a rebuttal of the charges. A journal prints a study and then, two issues later, a rebuttal from another laboratory.
It takes of: a rebuttal of the accusation, though a rebuttal to an editorial also works. The verb is rebut, and evidence is the point of both, since you rebut a claim by showing why it fails, and that is what separates a rebuttal from a simple no. In debating it names a stage, where each side gets a rebuttal after the opening speeches. Courts use it as well, and rebuttal evidence is brought in specifically to knock down what the other side has just put forward. The word belongs to argument and writing rather than to the kitchen table.
1nounrebuttalA reply that argues against a criticism or claim by giving reasons.~71%
“The company published a detailed rebuttal of the newspaper's story.”
synonyms: counterargument, refutation
2nounstageThe stage of a debate or trial in which one side answers the other's case.~29%
“She saved her strongest point for the rebuttal.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 14 sentences found in the wild and placed 14 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
rebuttal is a reply in an argument.
Old French
reboter
Middle English
rebutten
English
rebut
English, today
rebuttal
Built from
From rebut + -al. rebut Middle English rebutten, rebouten, from Old French reboter, rebuter, rebouter, etc., from re- + boter, buter, bouter (“to butt”). Entered English around 1302-1307.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA