Word of the Day

: March 26, 2022

specious

adjective SPEE-shuss

What It Means

Specious means "having deceptive attraction or allure" or "having a false look of truth or genuineness."

// The new streamlined design of the phone is specious: it may look new, but its innards are the same, offering no new capabilities or improvements.

// The suspect insisted he was telling the truth, but the detective felt his statements were specious.

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specious in Context

"Just 10 years after the Telecommunication Act of 1996 unleashed mergers under the specious assumption that size and concentration could improve services and spur innovation, large media companies had gobbled up book publishers, television and cable networks, radio stations, and internet ventures." — Siva Vaidhyanathan, Slate, 21 May 2021

Did You Know?

Specious comes from Latin speciosus, meaning "beautiful" or "plausible," and Middle English speakers used it to mean "visually pleasing." In time, specious had begun to suggest an attractiveness that was superficial or deceptive, and, subsequently, the word's neutral "pleasing" sense faded into obsolescence.