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
The learned term the rhetorical device an ignoratio elenchi.
From The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne : a Novel by William John Locke
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
Mr. Mill had better be cautious in talking about ignoratio elenchi.
From The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Henry Longueville Mansel
The whole of Mr. Mansel’s argument for the inconceivability of the Infinite and of the Absolute is one long ignoratio elenchi.
From The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Henry Longueville Mansel
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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