Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🙅 Rejection or denial 🔍 Exposing falseness 📄 Refusal to honor 💻 Denial of action
repudiation

repudiation

1 8.9
Refusing to pay a debt or to follow a contract, often by a government
  • noun
  • /rɪˌpjuːdiˈeɪʃən/
  • Formal
translation icon : repudio
  • The company's sudden repudiation of its partnership agreement shocked many investors.

Examples

  • Due to the financial crisis, the government announced a formal repudiation of its debts.

  • But countries understand that a failure to fully meet an obligation does not amount to a repudiation of the obligation.

    Academic text (1998)

  • And it can only be limited by the threat of complete repudiation, which isn't much of a limit.

    Blog text (1)

  • And I suspect it may include some inflation, it may include debt repudiation, it may include not being able to pay all the promises governments have made.

  • Lincoln's repudiation of the militia system fit perfectly with the larger principles for which the Civil War was fought.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Barack Obama avoided the ignominy of an electoral repudiation and may also have won the popular vote.

    Blog text (29)

  • At bottom, then, the infirmity of the Conscription Act lay in its repudiation of the military checks and balances designed by the Founders.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The cancellation of plans for carbon-dioxide emissions reductions, the repudiation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and weakened restrictions for arsenic levels in drinking water.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The city's repudiation of the contract left the construction project in jeopardy.

Synonyms

nonpayment
vsrepudiation
3 4.1

Someone does not pay money they owe

is an active, public refusal to acknowledge or pay owed sums
disavowal
vsrepudiation
  • Formal
2 8.1

A public statement saying you have no knowledge of or connection to something

is a refusal to accept or pay obligations rather than denial of connection
disallowance
vsrepudiation
  • Formal
1 7.2

An official decision not to accept a claim, for example a tax expense

is targeted specifically at refusing debts or contractual obligations rather than general denial
recission
vsrepudiation
  • Formal
9.9

Cancellation of a contract that returns both sides to how they were before

is a refusal to honor contract duties rather than a legal cancellation

Antonyms

acceptance
104 2.7

Being approved or welcomed by other people

to honor
  • Specialized
83 5.4

Accept and pay a check or bill when it is presented

How Complete

repudiation
  • Formal
1 8.9
default
  • Specialized
74 5.2
nonpayment
3 4.1

Surface Forms

repudiation singular
repudiations plural

Morphology

repudiation = repudiate (transparent) = repudiate + ion

A straightforward nominalization: the verb 'repudiate' plus the productive suffix '-ion' yields 'the act or result of repudiating'.

Etymology

Repudiation comes from the Latin repudiare, which meant 'to reject' or 'put away'. So when a state or company officially refuses to accept or pay a debt, that formal refusal is called a repudiation.