ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsSspecious
ISEE/SSAThard
specious
Meaning: seeming convincing but actually false or misleading
specious in a sentence
How specious is used in real sentences:
The attorney exposed the witness's specious explanation as a carefully arranged lie.
The advertisement made a specious claim that the costly supplement could replace sleep.
“He offered a specious defense: since both methods used arithmetic, either boundary must be equally objective.”
— from the passage Who Counts in Dockside
“The chancellor exploited their hesitation with a specious argument: because sudden reform could disturb the empire, any investigation of corruption must also threaten the peace.”
— from the passage The Ledger Conspiracy
Synonyms for specious
Other words for specious — deceptive, misleading and fallacious — carry the same meaning.
- deceptive
- misleading
- fallacious
Antonyms of specious
Words that mean the opposite of specious:
- valid
- sound
- genuine
Where it comes from
From Latin speciosus, meaning 'beautiful or plausible in appearance.'
Memory hook
SPECIOUS sounds like 'suspicious': a specious claim looks sound but deserves suspicion.