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specious

UK/ˈspiːʃəs/US/ˈspiːʃəs/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,748 of 15,258neutral

Specious means looking convincing while being quite wrong. A specious argument, specious reasoning, specious and dangerous.

The looking right is the whole complaint, and it is what makes a specious argument worse than a bad one. The Latin behind it means good-looking, and the word once simply meant handsome before it turned suspicious.

Definitions of specious

  1. 1adjectivespeciousLooking convincing while being quite wrong.C2

    “His specious argument sounded clever until you checked the figures.”

specious is a quality.

Remember it

The Latin behind it means good-looking, from the same looking that gives species. A specious argument looks right, and that is the whole trouble with it.

hooks ontospecies

Where it comes from

Latin speciosus means good-looking, from species, appearance.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *speḱ-

  2. Latin

    speciōsus — good-looking

  3. Middle French

    specieux

  4. Anglo-Norman

    specious

  5. Middle English

    speciose,specious

  6. English, today

    specious

From Middle English speciose,specious, from Anglo-Norman specious, Middle French specieux, and their etymon Latin speciōsus (“good-looking”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

specious in the wild

  • The specious present is defined as the "supposed time between past and future" or "a present that lasts a short stretch of physical time".

    Specious present

  • Asota speciosa, the specious tiger, formerly Aganais speciosa, is a moth of the subfamily Aganainae, now regarded as part of the family Erebidae.

    Asota speciosa

  • Vexillum speciosum, common name: the specious mitre, is a species of small sea snail, marine gastropod mollusk in the family Costellariidae, the ribbed miters.

    Vexillum speciosum

  • Assertions made under specious reasoning often appear or are generally accepted to be true and credible.

    Specious reasoning

  • Deliberately specious reasoning can be seen as a form of sophism.

    Specious reasoning

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.