specious.
Seemingly well-reasoned, plausible or true, but actually fallacious.
Meaning & usage
Seemingly well-reasoned, plausible or true, but actually fallacious.
This idea that we must see through what we have started is specious, however good it may sound.
Employing fallacious but deceptively plausible arguments; deceitful.
Having an attractive appearance intended to generate a favorable response; deceptively attractive.
Beautiful, pleasing to look at.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English speciose, specious, from Anglo-Norman specious, Middle French specieux, and their etymon Latin speciōsus (“good-looking”).
Alternative form of speciose (“rich in species”).
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree English speci(es) Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Old French -usbor. Middle English -ous English -ous English specious From speci(es) + -ous.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.