renege means to break a promise or commitment; to go back on one's word. It carries an Arena rating of 1796, earned across 51 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, renege ranks #837 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,583 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,917 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,062 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
renege is pronounced /ɹɪˈnɛɡ/.
Why “renege” is a great word
RENEGE — [Verb] To go back on a promise, commitment, or agreement. From Medieval Latin *renegare*, from Latin *re-* (expressing intensive force) + *negare* ("to deny"). First attested in English in the 1540s. Unlike "retract," which implies the formal withdrawal of a statement, or "default," which denotes a specific financial failure, to renege is the intimate fracture of a personal covenant. It is the hand withdrawn from a sealed deal, the silent telephone on the night a call was sworn, the vacant chair at the arranged meeting—a definitive subtraction from the world's fragile architecture of trust.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin renegō, from negō (“to deny”). Possibly influenced by renegotiate. Doublet of renay. See also renegade.
verb
- To break a promise or commitment; to go back on one's word.
- To break one's commitment to follow suit when capable.
- To deny; to renounce
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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