Deny

How to spell deny

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce deny

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deny mean?

1. verbTo state that something is untrue, or to refuse to grant or allow something.

Deny in a sentence

• The suspect continued to deny any involvement in the theft.

• The bank can deny a loan application without giving a reason.

Where does deny come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Deny comes from the Latin denegare, meaning 'to refuse' or 'to say no outright', built from the prefix de- (used here as an intensifier, roughly 'completely') and negare 'to say no, to deny'. That negare root, meaning literally 'to say not', also lies behind a whole family of English words such as 'negative', 'renege', and 'abnegate'. English borrowed the word through Old French denier in the 1200s, where it carried the same sense of refusing or rejecting a claim. The modern meanings, declaring something untrue and refusing to grant something, both trace cleanly back to that core idea of saying no. The spelling trap is small but real: the word ends in a plain -y after a single n, with no double letters, even though related forms like 'denial' and 'denied' reshape the ending.

How the word is built

• de- (away, off)
• -ny (from Latin negare: to say no)