pseudoscience

American  

[soo-doh-sahy-uhns] / ˌsu doʊˈsaɪ əns /

noun

1. any of various methods, theories, or systems, as astrology, psychokinesis, or clairvoyance, considered as having no scientific basis.

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pseudoscience British  

/ ˌsjuːdəʊˈsaɪəns /

noun

1. a discipline or approach that pretends to be or has a close resemblance to science

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pseudoscience Cultural  

1. A system of theories or assertions about the natural world that claim or appear to be scientific but that, in fact, are not. For example, astronomy is a science, but astrology is generally viewed as a pseudoscience.

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Other Word Forms

• pseudoscientific adjective
• pseudoscientifically adverb
• pseudoscientist noun

Etymology

Origin of pseudoscience

First recorded in 1835–45; pseudo- + science

Example Sentences

"The US Top Secret-cleared aerospace and nuclear workforce is ~700,000 people," science writer, investigator and pseudoscience debunker Mick West wrote on 16 April on his Substack.

From BBC • Apr. 23, 2026

The terms “highbrow” and “lowbrow” derived from the 19th-century pseudoscience of phrenology, and the former was first popularized by a New York Sun reporter around 1902, to be quickly followed by the latter.

From Salon • Apr. 19, 2026

“Most of this stuff is approximations. And it’s almost like pseudoscience in a way.”

From MarketWatch • Mar. 18, 2026

Here, then, is a sampling of predictions, which range from the discredited to pseudoscience to the bizarre.

From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026

The best antidote to astrology in particular and to pseudoscience in general is, as Carl Sagan has written, real science, whose wonders are as amazing but have the added virtue of probably being real.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos