sophistry
/ˈsɒfɪstri
/noun (plural sophistries) [mass noun]
1The use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving: trying to argue that I had benefited in any way from the disaster was pure sophistry...
- But Keynes smoothed over the harsh Marxist anti-individualism with artful sophistry and clever rhetoric into something salable to Americans.
- The Guardian's argumentation is pure sophistry.
- It must be confessed that there is an air of sophistry about this argument - and I certainly have doubts about its cogency.
1.1 [count noun] A fallacious argument.There are then, several sophistries involved in abdicating our positions to cultural corruption....
- I think you've been doing it so long you don't even recognize anymore that they're nothing but sophistries.
- When you bombard them with sophistries, wrong messages and show them only dead-ends, that is where you finally reach.
Synonyms
specious reasoning, the use of fallacious arguments, sophism, casuistry, quibbling, equivocation, fallaciousness
fallacious argument, sophism, fallacy, quibble;
Logic paralogism