elenchus
Americannoun
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elenchi
plural
noun
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refutation of an argument by proving the contrary of its conclusion, esp syllogistically
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the drawing out of the consequences of a position in order to show them to be contrary to some accepted position
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of elenchus
1655–65; < Latin < Greek élenchos refutation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The elenchus comes soon or late, but it always comes.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 25, 1917 by Various
It is the leaven working in the Sophists with their subtle rhetoric, in Socrates with his negating elenchus, in Plato with his confounding dialectic.
From Homer's Odyssey A Commentary by Denton Jaques Snider
Mr. Mill had better be cautious in talking about ignoratio elenchi.
From The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Henry Longueville Mansel
Define and illustrate:—Paralogism, ignoratio elenchi, fallacia accidentis, argumentum ad verecundiam, illicit process, undistributed middle, etc.
From Logic Deductive and Inductive by Carveth Read
If, indeed, an opponent challenges the truth of the conclusion, and you adduce premisses necessarily containing it as a refutation, that is an ignoratio elenchi unless your opponent admits those premisses.
From Logic, Inductive and Deductive by William Minto
It would therefore be an ignoratio elenchi to allow oneself to be disposed of in such a manner.
From The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; the Art of Controversy by T. Bailey (Thomas Bailey) Saunders
But others, by exhibiting what I may venture to describe as an ignoratio elenchi, have made it desirable to recall attention to the specific purport of my former letter.
From Letters to "The Times" upon War and Neutrality (1881-1920) by Sir Thomas Erskine Holland
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