fallacy
Deceptive or false appearance; that which misleads the eye or the mind.
Noun
- Deceptive or false appearance; that which misleads the eye or the mind.
- Mr Jones expressed great gratitude to the lady for the kind intentions towards him which she had expressed, and indeed testified, by this proposal; but, besides intimating some diffidence of success from the lady’s...
- I no longer believe in happiness, because I see the fallacy of my first belief; and the examination which that induced, has shewn me the fallacy of all. Shew me a heart without its hidden wound. - 1834, L[etitia]...
Synonyms: deception deceitfulness
- An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a specious argument.
- Baldridge also showed the "one molecule of blood," usually held to be the stimulus for attracting sharks, to be another common fallacy, since a molecule of blood does not exist. - 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of...
Synonyms: logical fallacy incorrect argument misargument non-argument pseudoargument
Hyponyms: formal fallacy informal fallacy
Origin
From Middle English fallaci, fallace, fallas, from Old French fallace, from Latin fallācia (“deception, deceit”), from fallāx (“deceptive, deceitful”), from fallere (“to deceive”).
Forms
Related
Derived
apex fallacy association fallacy bandwagon fallacy base rate fallacy black swan fallacy conceptual fallacy conjunction fallacy counterfallacy ethnocentric fallacy etymological fallacy fallacious fallacy fallacy fallacy of composition formal fallacy Galileo fallacy gambler's fallacy genetic fallacy glazier's fallacy Goomba fallacy goomba fallacy informal fallacy intensional fallacy intentional fallacy just-world fallacy