fallacy

English

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; that which misleads the eye or the mind
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     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 knowledge of his love to her niece, which had not been her case in regard to Mr Fitzpatrick, he said, he was afraid Miss Western would never agree to an imposition of this kind, as well from her utter detestation of all fallacy as from her avowed duty to her aunt.

   Synonyms: deception, deceitfulness

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: bedrieglijkheid (nl)
• French: tromperie (fr) f
• German: Täuschung (de) f
• Greek: πλάνη (el) f (pláni)
• Hungarian: megtévesztés (hu), félrevezetés (hu)
• Japanese: いんちき (ja) (inchiki), 欺瞞 (ja) (giman), 欺騙 (ja) (gihen)

• Kyrgyz: жаңылыштык (ky) (cañılıştık), адашуу (ky) (adaşuu)
• Maori: pōhēhētanga
• Portuguese: ilusão (pt) f
• Russian: обма́нчивость (ru) f (obmánčivostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: obmana (sh)
• Swedish: bedräglighet (sv)
• 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 (ca) f
• Czech: logický klam m
• Danish: fejlslutning c
• Dutch: drogreden (nl) m, f, schijnreden f, sofisme n
• Finnish: argumentointivirhe (fi)
• French: sophisme (fr) m
• Galician: falacia f
• German: Trugschluss (de) m, Fehlschluss (de) m
• Icelandic: rökvilla f
• Italian: fallacia (it) f

• Japanese: 誤謬 (ja) (ごびゅう, gobyū), 詭弁 (ja) (kiben), 迷妄 (meimō)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tankefeil m

• Portuguese: falácia (pt) f
• Russian: заблужде́ние (ru) n (zabluždénije), ло́жный вы́вод m (lóžnyj vývod), софи́зм (ru) m (sofízm)
• Serbo-Croatian: zabluda (sh), logička pogreška
• Spanish: falacia (es) f
• Swedish: felslut (sv) n
• Tagalog: kasinsayan
• Turkish: yanılım, aldatı (tr)

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 Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

See also

• sophism
• Appendix:Glossary of fallacies

Further reading

• 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