different between disconfirmation vs disconfirm

English

Etymology

dis- +? confirmation

Noun

disconfirmation (countable and uncountable, plural disconfirmations)

1. (chiefly philosophy, uncountable) Introduction of evidence which conclusively establishes that a belief or hypothesis is not true or which diminishes the acceptability of a belief or hypothesis.
   • 1990, Donald P. Spence, "Theories of the Mind: Science or Literature?", Poetics Today, vol. 11, no. 2, p. 331:

     Once we move our search to the region of the mind, we find that access to the facts becomes much more difficult; as a result, disconfirmation is largely out of reach and metaphor begins to flourish.

2. (countable) A particular fact, observation, or other item of evidence which shows or tends to show that a belief or hypothesis is not true.
   • 1981, Daniel M. Hausman, "John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of Economics", Philosophy of Science, vol. 48, no. 3, p. 366:

     One can reduce the disconfirmations of economic generalizations by specifying a margin of error.

Synonyms

• infirmation

Related terms

• disconfirm

Translations

English

Etymology

dis- +? confirm

Verb

disconfirm (third-person singular simple present disconfirms, present participle disconfirming, simple past and past participle disconfirmed)

1. (transitive) To establish the falsity of a claim or belief; to show or to tend to show that a theory or hypothesis is not valid.
   • 1943, Carl G. Hempel, "A Purely Syntactical Definition of Confirmation," The Journal of Symbolic Logic, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 122,

     The empirical data obtained in a test—or, as we shall prefer to say, the observation sentences describing those data—may then either confirm or disconfirm the given hypothesis, or they may be neutral with respect to it.

Synonyms

• infirm

Antonyms

• confirm

Related terms

• disconfirmable
• disconfirmation
• disconfirmatory

Translations

References

• “disconfirm” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)