Meaning

(uncountable) The act of negating something..

Definitions by Sense

1. (uncountable) The act of negating something.
2. (countable) A denial or contradiction.
3. (logic, linguistics, countable) A proposition which is the contradictory of another proposition and which can be obtained from that other proposition by the appropriately placed addition, or insertion, of the word "not". (Or, in symbolic logic, by prepending that proposition with the symbol for the logical operator "not".)
4. (logic) The logical operation which obtains such (negated) propositions.
5. (linguistics, countable) A negative particle; a word, particularly an adverb, with a negative meaning: for instance, no and not in English, nōn, haud and nē in Latin, οὐ and μή in ancient Greek.

Example Sentences

As an isolating language Belter Creole is rich in particles. Particles are used to indicate both negation and interrogation: na is the negative particle and it is placed before the verb

But it pleased her to play on my passion / And whet me to pleadings / That won from her mirthful negations / And scornings undue.

You get the negation of a proposition if you insert "not" (or some equivalent expression) into it in such a way as to form a contradictory of it.

Although some of the logicians working in term logic have very complicated treatments of negation, we can see the origin of the modern conception in the extensional tradition as well. In Boole and most of his followers, the negation of a term is understood as the set theoretic complement of the class represented by that term. For this reason, the negation of classical propositional logic is often called ‘Boolean negation’.

Word Forms

• negations

Synonyms for negation

Related Words

When Should You Use Negation?

Use negation when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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