speciously
- adverb
- /ˈspiːʃəsli/
- Formal
- For too many years, traditional educational experimental research has been dominated by variants of the Campbell-Stanley model of experimental design (Campbell-Stanley in 1963), which have speciously relegated teacher-made efforts at assessment and evaluation of student performance to the level of routine drudgery.
Examples
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Speciously, Dempsey's argument employed the very existence of the Native People's Caravan as proof that the problems that contributed to the crisis at the park reached far beyond the reaches of the Kenora area:
Academic text (2007) -
That little word which so speciously marries concept-separate nouns into virtual unity.
Fiction book (1994) -
The politician made a speciously attractive claim that his plan would eliminate poverty overnight.
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She presented a speciously logical solution to the problem, but it was ultimately unfeasible.
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His arguments were speciously sound, leading many to believe in his false conclusions.
Synonyms
In a way that is not true or correct
In a way that makes something seem different from what it really is
In a way that gives someone the wrong idea
In a dishonest way, by pretending not to know something
In a way that tries to trick someone
In a way that seems true but is not
In a wrong way because of a false belief that leads to wrong conclusions
In a false or dishonest way
Appearing to be correct or true but not really
In a clever but misleading way that tries to hide the truth
To use clever but unfair reasons to avoid a clear answer
In a way that makes people believe something that is not true
Antonyms
How Deceptive
- Formal
- Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word speciously comes from the Latin root spec- meaning 'to look' or 'appearance', the same root you see in spectacle. So, to argue or act speciously is to make something 'look' true or attractive when it is actually false.