specious
1Specious — 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… …
2specious — specious, spurious Specious, like the Latin word speciosus from which it is derived, began its life meaning ‘having a fine outward appearance’ (from Latin species ‘outward form’), but in the 17c acquired the unfavourable connotations that now… …
3specious — I adjective affected, apparent, appearing, artificial, assumed, believable, bogus, casuistic, casuistical, colorable, colored, convincing, counterfeit, credible, deceiving, deceptive, deluding, delusive, delusory, erroneous, exterior, external,… …
4specious — [spē′shəs] adj. [ME, fair, beautiful < L speciosus, showy, beautiful, plausible < species, look, show, appearance: see SPECIES] 1. seeming to be good, sound, correct, logical, etc. without really being so; plausible but not genuine… …
5specious — (adj.) c.1400, pleasing to the sight, fair, from L. speciosus good looking, beautiful, from species appearance (see SPECIES (Cf. species)). Meaning seemingly desirable, reasonable or probable, but not really so is first recorded 1610s …
6specious — *plausible, believable, colorable, credible Analogous words: *vain, nugatory, empty, hollow, idle: delusory, delusive, *misleading, deceptive: deceitful, *dishonest, untruthful, mendacious, lying …
7specious — [adj] misleading apparent, apparently right, beguiling, captious, casuistic, colorable, credible, deceptive, delusive, empty, erroneous, fallacious, false, flattering, hollow, idle, illogical, inaccurate, incorrect, likely, nugatory, ostensible,… …
8specious — ► ADJECTIVE 1) superficially plausible, but actually wrong. 2) misleading in appearance. DERIVATIVES speciously adverb speciousness noun. ORIGIN originally in the sense «beautiful»: from Latin speciosus fair, plausible …
9specious — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) adj. plausible, ostensible, apparent, casuistic, insincere; deceptive. See falsehood, imagination.Ant., logical, sincere. II (Roget s IV) modif. Syn. plausible, credible, colorable, beguiling, deceptive …
10specious — [[t]spi͟ːʃəs[/t]] ADJ GRADED Something that is specious seems to exist or be true, but is not real or true. [FORMAL] It is unlikely that the Duke was convinced by such specious arguments. Syn: false …
