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Im trying to find a proper word or phrase to describe this situation.

A person initially claimed that theres no pollution. Then later he or she turned around to say that there is some pollution due to faulty system. The latter statement detracts from the initial claims.

Wanted to know if theres a term, word or phrase that can be used to describe this.

Currently Im just using "turned around on his or her initial statement" but it sounds odd and wrong.

Thanks.

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  • 3
    Is this word to cover the situation where the speaker recants the original claim, or the one where he talks as if he had never said original, or both?
    – Mary
    Commented May 31, 2020 at 4:20
  • 2
    Are they coming clean and admitting they lied before? Or are they saying they never said the first thing? Or are they saying that they were wrong initially and are correcting themselves?
    – Jim
    Commented May 31, 2020 at 5:47
  • Hi, to Mary's question its more like speaker says something that goes against the original claim. To Jim's question, the person who made the initial claim did not allude to retract the original, so its contradictory. In a way admitting the first claim was wrong but yet not showing signs that they are correcting it.
    – Thinkerer
    Commented May 31, 2020 at 7:57

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Some options based on the situation:

If the person says the opposite of an earlier statement you could say they "contradict" themselves. This could be purposeful or unintentional or deceitful.

If the person purposefully changes an earlier position you could say they the "recant" or "retract" their earlier statement.

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