It's the word of the day for September 16th.

Today's word is debunk, spelled D-E-B-U-N-K.

Debunk is a verb. To debunk something, such as a belief or theory, is to show that it's not true.

Here's the word used. In a sentence from the New Yorker by Adam Gopnik,

conspiracy theorists and those of us who argue with them have the scars to show for it,

often maintain that the ones debunking the conspiracies are allied with the conspirators.

To debunk something is to take the bunk out of it, that bunk being nonsense. The word bunk is short

for the synonymous bunkum, which has political origins. Debunk has been in use since at least the 1920s, and it contrasts

with synonyms like disprove and rebut by suggesting that something is not merely untrue, but is

also a sham, a trick meant to deceive. One can simply disprove a myth, but if it is debunked, the implication is that

the myth was a grossly exaggerated or foolish claim. With your word of the day, I'm Peter

Sokolowski.

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