sophistry

[sof-uh-stree]

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noun, plural soph·ist·ries.

a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.

a false argument; sophism.

Nearby words

Origin of sophistry

1300–50; Middle English sophistrie < Middle French, equivalent to sophistre sophister + -ie -y³

Related formsan·ti·soph·ist·ry, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sophistry

One of the arguments for intervention arising from the Syria strikes relies on a bit of sophistry.
What Israel's Attack Doesn't Mean For American Intervention In Syria|Ali Gharib|May 6, 2013|DAILY BEAST
No amount of rouge will ever camouflage rhetoric and sophistry.
Letter to a Young Critic: William Giraldi Defends True Criticism|William Giraldi|September 5, 2012|DAILY BEAST
But there is a sophistry which attends all the passions, especially those into which the populace enter.
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F.|David Hume
People unpleasantly refer me back, and to escape I have to invent some sophistry.
The Journal of a Disappointed Man|Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion

It is his inability to discover the true mode of investigation that accounts for much of Rousseau's sophistry.
The Rise of the Democracy|Joseph Clayton
In our attempt to reconcile God's conduct with morality, we resort to sophistry.
Morality Without God|M. M. Mangasarian
It is always acceptable to my mind, and, stripped of all sophistry and oblique conditions, it would appear the same to every mind.
The Speech of Monkeys|R. L. Garner

British Dictionary definitions for sophistry

sophistry

noun plural -ries

a method of argument that is seemingly plausible though actually invalid and misleading
the art of using such arguments

subtle but unsound or fallacious reasoning

an instance of this; sophism

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sophistry

sophistry

"specious but fallacious reasoning," mid-14c., from Old French sophistrie (Modern French sophisterie), from Medieval Latin sophistria, from Latin sophista, sophistes (see sophist). "Sophistry applies to reasoning as sophism to a single argument" [Century Dictionary].

sophistry

noun, plural soph·ist·ries.

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of sophistry

Examples from the Web for sophistry

sophistry

noun plural -ries

sophistry