The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word NEGATION
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
N
E
G
A
T
I
O
N
More clues leading to the result NEGATION
- Denial — for example in what might be Scotland?
- Say State accepts denial
- Denial from Antigone
- One cancels new diplomatic mission after leader pulls out
- Denial in the form of no eating
- Contradiction for example accepted by people
- People, say, kept in denial
- One giant, messy denial
- People, say, to be kept in denial
- Denial, for example, that’s accepted by people
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "denial" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case denial = negation.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does NEGATION mean?
NEGATION noun- The act of negating something.
- A denial or contradiction.
- A proposition which is the contradictory of another proposition and which can be obtained from that other proposition by the appropriately placed addition/insertion of the word "not". (Or, in symbolic logic, by prepending that proposition with the symbol for the logical operator "not".)
- The logical operation which obtains such (negated) propositions.