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

• pseudoscientist
  noun
• pseudoscientific
  adjective
• pseudoscientifically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of pseudoscience

First recorded in 1835–45; pseudo- + science

Example Sentences

The goal, he says, is to supplant independent academic research with “an entire system of pseudoscience and grift.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2026

Predicting the weather over the next 72 hours, Krick favors what might generously be termed a historically informed approach and what might ungenerously be dubbed barmy pseudoscience.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026

"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

Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold.

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