Fallacious (Adjective)

Sentence with Context:

John Cook, Peter Ellerton, and David Kinkead have just published a paper in Environmental Research Letters in which they examined 42 common climate myths and found that every single one demonstrates fallacious reasoning. For example, the authors made a video breaking down the logical flaws in the myth ‘climate changed naturally in the past so current climate change is natural.’

Source: www.theguardian.com

Meaning: Based on a mistaken belief

Synonyms

Specious, Misinformed, Erroneous, Distorted, Misguided, Unproven, Unsupported, Delusive, Delusory, Illusory

Antonyms

Correct, True, Forthright, Non-deceptive, Straightforward

Mnemonic (Memory Aid): How To Remember?

“Fallacious” should remind you of “false“. Imagine someone falling to such great levels that they would use false statements to justify their position or statements.

An interesting point regarding the word “Fallacious“: Check the meaning again. It means “based on a mistaken belief“. That means that the persons making fallacious statements actually believe the false statements they are making. Thus, although “Specious” (click to read the word here) is a synonym for “Fallacious“, there is a subtle difference. Specious statements look right on the surface but are actually wrong while fallacious statements stem from a belief system. A fallacious statement might look stupid to you, but the one who is making it may actually believe in it. Hope this makes sense!

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