adj.

1. Lacking authenticity or validity in essence or origin; not genuine; false.
2. Of illegitimate birth.
3. Botany. Similar in appearance but unlike in structure or function. Used of plant parts.

[From Late Latin spurius, from Latin, illegitimate, probably of Etruscan origin.]

spuriously spu'ri·ous·ly adv.
spuriousness spu'ri·ous·ness n.

Fiery activist Jesse Jackson hit our top alt-clicks list when he blasted Mexican President Vicente Fox for drawing a "spurious comparison" between Mexican immigrants and African-Americans. Fox had said: "There's no doubt that the Mexican men and women -- full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work -- are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States."

Posted May 16, 2005.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

adjective

1. Fraudulently or deceptively imitative: bogus, counterfeit, fake, false, fraudulent, phony, sham, suppositious, supposititious. See true/false.
2. Containing fundamental errors in reasoning: fallacious, false, illogical, invalid, sophistic, specious, unsound. See correct/incorrect, true/false.
3. Devoid of truth: counterfactual, false, specious, truthless, untrue, untruthful, wrong. See true/false.
4. Born to parents who are not married to each other: baseborn, bastard, illegitimate, misbegotten, natural, unlawful. See kin, law.

adj

Definition: counterfeit, fake
Antonyms: authentic, genuine, real, true

---

Simulated; not genuine; false.

IN BRIEF: Not genuine.

Many people want to believe the spurious claim that you can get rich quickly without hard work.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - falsk, forfalsket, uægte

Nederlands (Dutch)
onecht, vals

Français (French)
adj. - fallacieux, inventé, faux, feint, superficiel

Deutsch (German)
adj. - unaufrichtig, falsch

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - ψεύτικος, παραπλανητικός, κίβδηλος, κάλπικος, πλανεμένος

Italiano (Italian)
posticcio

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - espúrio

Русский (Russian)
поддельный, ложный, внебрачный, незаконнорожденный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - falso, apócrifo, espúreo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - falsk, förfalskad, oäkta, hycklad

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
伪造的, 欺骗的, 假造的

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 偽造的, 欺騙的, 假造的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 가짜의, 사생아의, 서출의

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 私生児の, …にせの

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) زائفه, كاذبه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מזוייף, מלאכותי‬

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