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:
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 elenchus comes soon or late, but it always comes.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 25, 1917 by Various
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
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
But you cannot very well say to an infant of three, "You are now being guilty of an undistributed middle or a petitio elenchi or whatever it is."
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, June 16, 1920 by Various
The Tál is injurious to children, and the Mimusops elenchi productive of large families.
From Cultus Arborum Phallic Tree Worship by Anonymous
Throw the ignoratio elenchi in his teeth, and, at once, you have him annihilated.
From The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4 by Edgar Allan Poe
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.
