specious

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Specious, like the Latin word speciosus from which it is derived, began its life meaning 'having a fine outward appearance' (from Latin species 'outward form'), but in the 17th century acquired the unfavourable connotations that now characterize its meaning as 'plausible but in fact wrong' as in a specious argument. Spurious, which is sometimes confused with specious, is derived from the Latin adjective spurius 'false', and means 'not genuine, not being what it purports to be'. A specious claim is one that is attractive but insubstantial whereas a spurious claim is one based on a false premiss.

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adjective

1. Containing fundamental errors in reasoning: fallacious, false, illogical, invalid, sophistic, spurious, unsound. See correct/incorrect, true/false.
2. Devoid of truth: counterfactual, false, spurious, truthless, untrue, untruthful, wrong. See true/false.

adj

Definition: misleading
Antonyms: real, true, valid

IN BRIEF: Looking fair or right but being false.

They realized that the sales pitch was specious when the company suddenly went out of business.

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For a list of words related to specious, see:

• Bad, False, Evil, Insincere, or Dishonest
• Reason and Rationale - specious: (adj) unsound though appearing to be true

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See words rhyming with "specious."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Specious.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - besnærende, bestikkende

Nederlands (Dutch)
misleidend, verblindend

Français (French)
adj. - spécieux, trompeur

Deutsch (German)
adj. - Schein-, blendend

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - αληθοφανής, απατηλός, παραπειστικός

Italiano (Italian)
specioso

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - enganador, ilusório

Русский (Russian)
благовидный, показной, кажущийся, лицемерный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - especioso, engañoso, aparente

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - skenbar, bestickande, skenfager

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
徒有其表的, 华而不实的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 徒有其表的, 華而不實的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 허울만 좋은, 겉만 번드르르한, 그럴 듯한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 見かけ倒しの, 猫をかぶった, 知覚できる, 経験しうる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) (حجه) معقوله ظاهريا ( لكنها باطله)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮נכון לכאורה, צודק למראית עין, הוגן כביכול, מטעה, מזוייף‬

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