specious

specious
    adj 1: plausible but false; "a specious claim"; "spurious
           inferences" [syn: {specious}, {spurious}]
    2: based on pretense; deceptively pleasing; "the gilded and
       perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility"; "meretricious
       praise"; "a meretricious argument" [syn: {gilded},
       {meretricious}, {specious}]
    

Specious \Spe"cious\, a. [L. speciosusgood-looking, beautiful,
   specious, fr. species look, show, appearance; cf. F.
   sp['e]coeux. See {Species}.]
   1. Presenting a pleasing appearance; pleasing in form or
      look; showy.
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            Some [serpents] specious and beautiful to the eye.
                                                  --Bp.
                                                  Richardson.
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            The rest, far greater part,
            Will deem in outward rites and specious forms
            Religion satisfied.                   --Milton.
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   2. Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct,
      but not so in reality; appearing well at first view;
      plausible; as, specious reasoning; a specious argument.
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            Misled for a moment by the specious names of
            religion, liberty, and property.      --Macaulay.
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            In consequence of their greater command of specious
            expression.                           --J. Morley.
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   Syn: Plausible; showy; ostensible; colorable; feasible. See
        {Plausible}.
        [1913 Webster] -- {Spe"xious*ly}, adv. --
        {Spe"cious*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]
    

85 Moby Thesaurus words for "specious":
      Barmecidal, Barmecide, airy, alleged, apparent, apparently sound,
      apparitional, autistic, avowed, beguiling, casuistic, chimeric,
      claimed, colorable, colored, conceivable, deceptive, delusional,
      delusionary, delusive, delusory, dereistic, disingenuous,
      dreamlike, dreamy, empty, erroneous, fallacious, false, fantastic,
      gilded, hollow, hypocritical, idle, illogical, illusional,
      illusionary, illusive, illusory, imaginary, in name only,
      inaccurate, incorrect, insincere, jesuitic, likely, meretricious,
      misleading, nugatory, ostensible, overrefined, oversubtle,
      phantasmagoric, phantasmal, phantom, philosophistic, plausible,
      possible, presumable, presumed, pretended, pretexted, professed,
      purported, seeming, self-deceptive, self-deluding, so-called,
      sophistic, sophistical, spectral, spurious, superficial, supposed,
      supposititious, tinsel, unactual, unfounded, unreal, unsound,
      unsubstantial, untrue, vain, visionary, wrong