'Specious' definitions:
Definition of 'specious'
(from WordNet)
adjective
Plausible but false; "a specious claim"; "spurious inferences" [syn: specious, spurious]
adjective
Based on pretense; deceptively pleasing; "the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility"; "meretricious praise"; "a meretricious argument" [syn: gilded, meretricious, specious]
Definition of 'Specious'
From: GCIDE
- Specious \Spe"cious\, a. [L. speciosusgood-looking, beautiful, specious, fr. species look, show, appearance; cf. F. sp['e]coeux. See Species.]
- 1. Presenting a pleasing appearance; pleasing in form or look; showy. [1913 Webster]
- Some [serpents] specious and beautiful to the eye. --Bp. Richardson. [1913 Webster]
- The rest, far greater part, Will deem in outward rites and specious forms Religion satisfied. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct, but not so in reality; appearing well at first view; plausible; as, specious reasoning; a specious argument. [1913 Webster]
- Misled for a moment by the specious names of religion, liberty, and property. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
- In consequence of their greater command of specious expression. --J. Morley. [1913 Webster]
- Syn: Plausible; showy; ostensible; colorable; feasible. See Plausible. [1913 Webster] -- {Spe"xious*ly}, adv. -- {Spe"cious*ness}, n. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'specious'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- airy,
- alleged,
- apparent,
- apparently sound,
- apparitional,
- autistic,
- avowed,
- Barmecidal,
- Barmecide,
- beguiling,
- casuistic,
- chimeric,
- claimed,
- colorable,
- colored,
- conceivable,
- deceptive,
- delusional,
- delusionary,
- delusive,
- delusory,
- dereistic,
- disingenuous,
- dreamlike,
- dreamy,
- empty,
- erroneous,
- fallacious,
- false,
- fantastic,
- gilded,
- hollow,
- hypocritical,
- idle,
- illogical,
- illusional,
- illusionary,
- illusive,
- illusory,
- imaginary,
- in name only,
- inaccurate,
- incorrect,
- insincere,
- jesuitic,
- likely,
- meretricious,
- misleading,
- nugatory,
- ostensible,
- overrefined,
- oversubtle,
- phantasmagoric,
- phantasmal,
- phantom,
- philosophistic,
- plausible,
- possible,
- presumable,
- presumed,
- pretended,
- pretexted,
- professed,
- purported,
- seeming,
- self-deceptive,
- self-deluding,
- so-called,
- sophistic,
- sophistical,
- spectral,
- spurious,
- superficial,
- supposed,
- supposititious,
- tinsel,
- unactual,
- unfounded,
- unreal,
- unsound,
- unsubstantial,
- untrue,
- vain,
- visionary,
- wrong