fallacious

10 synonyms and 5 antonyms for fallacious, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Adjective — Based on faulty reasoning or a mistaken belief, and therefore wrong.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

false

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

erroneous fraudulent misleading deceptive

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

unsound illogical specious spurious deceitful

Synonyms by Meaning

1. adjective formal

Based on faulty reasoning or a mistaken belief, and therefore wrong.

“The argument that prices always fall in a recession is fallacious.”

unsound erroneous illogical specious spurious deceitful fraudulent

Opposites

sound valid logical

2. adjective formal

Likely to mislead someone, whether or not deliberately.

“The advert made fallacious claims about the product's health benefits.”

misleading deceptive false

Opposites

truthful accurate

How to use fallacious

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

fallacious argument fallacious reasoning fallacious assumption patently fallacious

Formal. Most at home in academic writing, philosophy, law and argument analysis; in everyday speech people usually just say wrong or misleading.

Etymology

From Latin fallax, fallac- 'deceitful', from fallere 'to deceive'. The same root gives English fail, fault and false.

Full origin of fallacious →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between fallacious and false?

False simply means untrue, whereas fallacious means the reasoning used to reach a conclusion is defective. A fallacious argument can even reach a true conclusion by bad logic, and a false statement can be made without any argument at all.

What is the difference between fallacious and fallible?

Fallacious describes an argument or belief that is logically unsound. Fallible describes a person or system that is capable of making mistakes. People are fallible; their arguments may be fallacious.

Is fallacious the adjective of fallacy?

Yes. A fallacy is a flaw in reasoning, and fallacious is the adjective describing anything that contains one, such as a fallacious claim or a fallacious line of argument.

People also searched

sound false accurate valid logical misleading fraudulent truthful erroneous deceptive specious spurious

Nearby words

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