Word of the Day

: October 26, 2006

specious

adjective SPEE-shuss

What It Means

1 : having deceptive attraction or allure

2 : having a false look of truth or genuineness : sophistic

specious in Context

From the get-go Shelly felt that Clark's claim was specious, but he insisted he was telling the truth and she couldn't at first prove otherwise.

Did You Know?

"Appearances can be deceptive." "Things are not always as they seem." Like these familiar proverbs, the word "specious" attests that English speakers can be a skeptical lot when it comes to trusting outward appearances. "Specious" traces to the Latin word "speciosus," meaning "beautiful" or "plausible," and Middle English speakers used it to mean "visually pleasing." But by the 17th century, "specious" had begun to suggest an attractiveness that was superficial or deceptive, and, subsequently, the word's neutral "pleasing" sense faded into obsolescence.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.