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
Define and illustrate:—Paralogism, ignoratio elenchi, fallacia accidentis, argumentum ad verecundiam, illicit process, undistributed middle, etc.
From Logic Deductive and Inductive by Carveth Read
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
The Asparas are pleased with Bombax malabaricum, and the Gandharvas with Jasminum, the Terminalia chebula increases the number of servants, and the Mimusops elenchi gives maid-servants.
From Cultus Arborum Phallic Tree Worship by Anonymous
To deny or ridicule any of these beliefs on physical grounds is to commit the fallacy of ignoratio elenchi.
From On the Genesis of Species by St. George Mivart
Mr. Mill concludes this chapter with another instance of that ignoratio elenchi which has been so abundantly manifested throughout his previous criticisms.
From The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Henry Longueville Mansel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
