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# defeasible

«defeasible» in Mova's school dictionary: **able to be cancelled or overturned, for example a right…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (defeasible; not compared)

### meaning for a pupil

(formal, law, logic) Defeasible means able to be cancelled or overturned, for example a right, a contract or a conclusion that may be undone by new facts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

A rare scholarly word. In law, a defeasible right can be taken away if a condition happens. In logic and thinking skills, a defeasible conclusion is a good guess that new evidence could overturn: «Birds fly, so Tweety flies» — unless we learn Tweety is a penguin. It reminds us that many everyday conclusions are «true unless shown otherwise».

### examples

- «Tweety is a bird, so Tweety flies» is a defeasible conclusion. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#x1)
- The judge said the agreement was defeasible. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#x2)
- Most everyday reasoning is defeasible: new facts can change our minds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#x3)
- The family's right to the land was defeasible if they stopped farming it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#x4)
- A scientist's theory is defeasible if a better experiment shows it wrong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#x5)
- The rule is defeasible: there are exceptions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/#x6)

### note

Very formal and rare. Opposite: indefeasible (cannot be taken away). Pronounced «dih-FEE-zuh-bul». Not related to «defeat» in meaning, though the two words share an old root.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «defeasible» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/defeasible/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.