Deny Vs Dismiss

[Reemy]

Hi
They deny the reports , and they dismiss the story, these two underlined verbs give here the same meaning which is stating that something is untrue. My question , is there any difference, even a slight one, in using each with regard to the power of the meaning or the connotations? i realy like to know.

Thanks

[BobK]

Hi
They deny the reports , and they dismiss the story, these two underlined verbs give here the same meaning which is stating that something is untrue. My question , is there any difference, even a slight one, in using each with regard to the power of the meaning or the connotations? i realy like to know.
Thanks

In this context, I detect only a very slight difference. Dismiss is possibly a bit stronger, in that it implies that the story is not worth discussing (irrelevant or ridiculous).

The big difference, as I see it, is that deny can take as its object a subordinate clause or a participle: "He denied that he had ever been there/He denied ever having been there". In that context, you can't use dismiss (or at least it would sound rather odd).

b

[Reemy]

BobK, Thanks alot. Now i know the difference.