Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument.
- adj. Deceptively attractive.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pleasing to the eye; externally fair or showy; appearing beautiful or charming; sightly; beautiful.
- Superficially fair, just, or correct; appearing well; apparently right; plausible; beguiling: as, specious reasoning; a specious argument; a specious person or book.
- Appearing actual, or in reality; actually existing; not imaginary.
- Pertaining to species or a species.
- Synonyms Colorable, Plausible, etc. See ostensible.
Wiktionary
- adj. Seemingly well-reasoned or factual, but actually fallacious or insincere; strongly held but false.
- adj. Having an attractive appearance intended to generate a favorable response; deceptively attractive.
- adj. obsolete Beautiful, pleasing to look at.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Presenting a pleasing appearance; pleasing in form or look; showy.
- adj. Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct, but not so in reality; appearing well at first view; plausible.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. based on pretense; deceptively pleasing
- adj. plausible but false
Etymologies
- From Latin speciōsus ("good-looking"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, attractive, from Latin speciōsus, from speciēs, appearance; see spek- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“She is what I call a specious pig, and why she wanted to send me a Christmas card I simply can't imagine.”
“Fanatics, on both sides of this debate, place themselves in specious, non-tenable positions because they†™ re not thinking completely through their positions.”
Think Progress » POLL: Only 3 Percent Say Homosexuality is America’s ‘Most Serious Moral Crisis’
“The ambassador condescended to justify, or excuse, the conduct of his master; and to protest, in specious language, that the murder of Gratian had been perpetrated, without his knowledge or consent, by the precipitate zeal of the soldiers.”
“As a gun owner and a woman who has permit to carry, this whole argument that Obama will take away your guns in specious.”
“Night Shyamalan film about the crop circles to be quite specious, that is , Mel Gibson making some kind of deal with God to cure his son's asthma...but I have trouble with Shyamalan 's dialogue in any case.”
“Bart" DePalma loves moving the goalposts or "reframing the issue", or "begging the question", or whatever you want to call his specious form of argumentation:”
“But it does apparently open the gates to what might be called specious critiques.”
“The so called specious bonus payments made to the anointed ones at AIG amount to less than. 001\% of the total "loans" made to the corp. by Uncle Sammy.”
“I say "specious" because they had renewed their visas on time; it was the federal government that took nine months to a year to process the paperwork, then arrested them for having an expired visa.”
The Huffington Post: Kelly Caldwell: Say Yes to a Mosque at Ground Zero
“These concerns are "specious," according to Schachter, in a long comment on the web post of the story.”
The Huffington Post: Curtis Black: The New York Times in Chicago: Under the Influence?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘specious’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
syzygy, systyle, systematology, systatic, syssitia, syrtic, systaltic, syrt, syrinx, syphilomania, syphilology, syntrierarch and 1593 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Used
halcyon, ineluctable, inspissated, incarnadine, askance, demur, saltation, requisite, effusive, specious, liminality, indomitable and 114 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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good,everyday use
ballsy, somber, acerbic, gouge, muffin top, decrepit, crud, palliative, manly, bemused, specious
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Off label definitions
Commonly used words with multiple meanings, the others being obscure or rarely used. Good to know for that dang analogy exam.
marquise, navette, indorse, crew, defile, poop, straiten, heckle, frit, notate, oblate, hotspur and 16 more...
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GRE Practice
coruscate, preternatural, preclude, retrench, perfidy, sophistry, sedulous, martinet, churlish, dissembler, prevarication, impugn and 38 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for specious.
kingparton With all of the tensions of cold and hot wars working towards a rather specious "unity of purpose," political non-conformity seems to have all but disappeared.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Jan 2, 2012
Casey "As he took yet another deep breath of that speciously sweet cinnamon smell, it seemed to him that he had never wanted anything so badly in his whole life." From The Wastelands by Stephen King. Jan 8, 2011
oroboros Cf. spurious. Dec 23, 2009
seanahan SLH, if you click the links above you can get the definitions and you won't need to copy them. May 16, 2009
slh http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/specious
specious
Main Entry: spe·cious
Pronunciation: \ˈspē-shəs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, visually pleasing, from Latin speciosus beautiful, plausible, from species
Date: 1513
1obsolete : showy
2: having deceptive attraction or allure
3: having a false look of truth or genuineness : sophistic
— spe·cious·ly adverb
— spe·cious·ness noun May 15, 2009
Prolagus specieous: something that seems to be cheap, but it's not. Oct 16, 2008
dontcry Suspecious: skeptical that something actually is false... Oct 16, 2008
geronimo seeming reasonable but actually wrong,
misleading in appearance
Oct 16, 2008