How to Use gainsay in a Sentence

gainsay

verb
  • The courage and cleverness in staying in power for so long cannot be gainsaid.
    — The Economist, 7 Sep. 2019
  • There are a lot of arguments that can be put forward to gainsay the importance of this set of charges.
    — Tyler Foggatt, The New Yorker, 17 June 2023
  • Some of the yo-yoing on display has been the product of mindless, gainsaying partisanship.
    — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 16 Apr. 2020
  • Tales of blood pacts over steaming entrails, after all, make for exciting reading, especially when no one can gainsay them.
    — James Romm, WSJ, 7 July 2017
  • Her role in passing the Affordable Care Act was absolutely heroic and should not be gainsaid.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 18 July 2019
  • And if the judges are ever to gainsay the popular will with just cause, their institutional independence is the bulwark of their authority to do so.
    — Matthew J. Franck, National Review, 12 Sep. 2021
  • None of this is to gainsay the help that western European allies have provided to Ukraine or to minimize the constraints that hamper them from doing more.
    — A. Wess Mitchell, Foreign Affairs, 5 July 2023
  • Yet a fluent, pacy new translation by Michael Hofmann gainsays that assumption, opening up the book for English-speakers.
    — The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Yet what’s most original in the film is Mercier’s scathing and self-scourging performance (and there’s no gainsaying the importance of Yoav’s outfit, a collarless saffron-yellow coat).
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2019
  • Pelosi in the House was where Alexandra first used show-trial video, making J6 the central illustration of feminist power, yet gainsaying her mother’s involvement in events of that day.
    — Armond White, National Review, 25 Oct. 2023
  • The New York Knicks’ president, a stout, taciturn man, surly about the mouth, who spurns engagement with the media but whose competence no contemporary Knicks follower can gainsay, stands in a crowd, surrounded by cheering fans.
    — Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 2 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gainsay.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: