fallacy

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French fallace, from Latin fallacia (“deception, deceit”), from fallax (“deceptive, deceitful”), from fallere (“to deceive”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfæləsi/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

fallacy (plural fallacies)

1. Deceptive or false appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind; deception.
2. (logic) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not. A specious argument.

Derived terms

• logical fallacy
• formal fallacy
• informal fallacy

Related terms

• fail
• fallacious
• fallibilist
• fallibilism
• fallibility
• fallible

Translations

deceptive or false appearance

• Bulgarian: заблуда (bg) f (zabluda)
• Czech: klam m
• Dutch: drogreden (nl)
• French: tromperie (fr) f
• German: Täuschung (de) f
• Greek: πλάνη (el) f (pláni)

• Hungarian: megtévesztés (hu), félrevezetés
• Kyrgyz: жаңылыштык (ky) (cañılıştık), адашуу (ky) (adaşuu)
• Russian: обманчивость (ru) f (obmánčivost')
• Serbo-Croatian: obmana
• Swedish: bedräglighet
• Turkish: mantıksızlık (tr), mugalata (tr), yanlış (tr), yanlış düşünce, yanlış inanış, yanılgı (tr)
• Urdu: مُغالطَہ (mughalta)

false argument

• Bulgarian: софизъм (bg) n (sofizǎm)
• Catalan: fal·làcia f
• Czech: logický klam m
• Dutch: drogreden (nl) m, f
• Finnish: harhaluulo (fi), harhakäsitys, harhakuvitelma (fi)
• French: sophisme (fr) m
• German: Trugschluss (de) m

• Italian: fallacia (it) f
• Portuguese: falácia (pt) f
• Russian: заблуждение (ru) n (zabluždénije), ложный вывод m (lóžnyj vývod), софизм (ru) m (sofízm)
• Serbo-Croatian: zabluda, logička pogreška
• Spanish: falacia (es) f
• Turkish: yanılım

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Japanese: 誤謬

See also

• sophism
• Appendix:Glossary of fallacies

External links

• fallacy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• fallacy in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• fallacy at OneLook Dictionary Search