Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of: debunk a supposed miracle drug.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something
WordNet 3.0
- v. expose while ridiculing; especially of pretentious or false claims and ideas
Etymologies
- de- + bunk (from bunkum) 1923 (Wiktionary)
Examples
“And in the 20th century, we shortened that to bunk, and in the 1920s, someone came up with the term debunk as an antidote to bunk.”
“A more thorough debunk is available here, but one point bears mentioning.”
“The inference of the word debunk implies that it is something dishonest that needs to be corrected.”
“‘More obscurely, and more defiant against attempts to debunk, is the case of Ninel Kulagina.”
“Regarding our recent discussion on suburbs and cities, here’s an interesting article from Joel Kotkin debunking many of the “creative cities” ideas that have been so popular in the wake of Richard Florida.”
“The words meditation and mindfulness have become interchangeable in recent years, with the latter adopted as a term to debunk the myths around meditation.”
“It's so tragically stupid. on 02 / 26 / 2009, -0 / +4Don't think you can find a so called debunk of America: "Freedom to Fascism" no google and think thats research this is not refuting any thing”
“You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air.”
“That is why those of us who feel that the Myth is already dead for us must not make the mistake of trying to 'debunk' it in the wrong way.”
“In that sense, Newsweek was in the vanguard of what would become a trend of the American news media, to ignore or "debunk" investigations of major national security crimes rather than seriously investigate them.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘debunk’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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de-
away from; off; down; entirely; undo; reverse
detrain, decline, defunct, defrost, debility, detract, deduce, deduct, delineate, defuse, debunk, debase and 7 more...
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Verbages
puddle, kowtow, tessellate, defalcate, embezzle, enkindle, ablate, frivol, moonlight, tongue-tie, gobble, pettifog and 58 more...
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unk knowns
bunk, chipmunk, junkyard, funk, junket, crunk, chunk, kerplunk, hunk, preshrunk, spunk, countersunk and 53 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1904 more...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV
Words from the songs of Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis
zugzwang, valhalla, montalvo, ishist, tritons, mosh, siam, llano del rio, protohuman, tumbleweeds, ludwigshafen, ballyhoos and 349 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for debunk.

ruzuzu Yar! Mar 25, 2011
bilby rickety junk.
Happy boating. Mar 25, 2011
ruzuzu Brackets around "rickety junk," please.
Also see badunkadunk. Mar 25, 2011
bilby I used to love my morning debunk
When my leg hit the floor - kerplunk!
But one day it went squish
On a poor startled fish -
'Cos my rickety junk had sunk!
Mar 24, 2011
yarb To get out of bed.
I like the peg-legged sound - debunk, debunk, debunk. Mar 24, 2011