I refute you thus

refute To refute a statement is to prove or establish that it is false. 'Refute' is a success-verb, like 'to convince'. But nowadays, especially where the people concerned are those in public life and stand accused of such-and-such infraction, they will say such things as 'I refute these allegations', when what they mean, and all they can rightly mean, is that they deny them (likewise, saying 'I prove the allegations!' doesn't bring it about that you have proved them). A lively example from an AP report, November 23 2005:

Teri Hatcher is suing a British tabloid newspaper for libel over its claims she had "sex romps" with men in a Volkswagen van, her lawyer said Wednesday. London law firm Schillings said Hatcher, who stars on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," had instructed it to begin libel proceedings against the Daily Sport over articles that she says "falsely alleged that she engages in sex romps on a regular basis with a series of men in a VW van parked outside her L.A. home for this purpose."

The claims "were repeated extensively elsewhere in many countries," the firm said. Hatcher "bitterly refutes these offensive allegations," it said.

tragedy 'Tragedy' now means simply 'disaster' or 'catastrophe'. It used to mean the sort of thing that happens in King Lear or the Oresteia: Disaster befalls human beings because certain human virtues, in certain situations that cannot be guaranteed not to arise, lead to ruin. It has to do with the inadequacy of human morality to cope with reality, giving the lie to Socrates' idea that the good person cannot be harmed. An earthquake that kills people is horrible, but it is not a tragedy (in the old sense).