specious

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“
She is what I call a specious pig, and why she wanted to send me a Christmas card I simply can't imagine.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument.
  2. adjective Deceptively attractive.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Their complaints were specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not averse to the example of disorder and impunity. —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gibbon, by James Cotter Morison
  • The claims that these major changes "improve" usability etc. are utterly specious -- having to RELEARN all my OS's and all my apps every year or so is enormously stressful and unproductive. —  CNET News.com
  • Their entire claim is specious, the law simply does not do what they say. —  theRPGSite
  • Equally specious is the oft-heard complaint that even some of the immediate spending is not stimulative. —  D-Day
  • For reasons cited by other commenters, I find Kurt's argument specious -- that not everyone will find the information useful is no reason not to offer it to those who will. —  BlueOregon
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, attractive, from Latin speciōsus, from speciēs, appearance; see spek- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English specious, from Old French specieux, French spécieux = Spanish Portuguese especioso = Italian spezioso, from Latin speciosus, good-looking, beautiful, fair, from species, form, figure, beauty: see species.
 

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/ˈspiʃəs/
by American Heritage

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