spurious
Americanadjective
-
not genuine, authentic, or true; not from the claimed, pretended, or proper source; counterfeit.
- Antonyms:
- genuine
-
Biology. (of two or more parts, plants, etc.) having a similar appearance but a different structure.
-
of illegitimate birth; bastard.
adjective
-
not genuine or real
-
(of a plant part or organ) having the appearance of another part but differing from it in origin, development, or function; false
a spurious fruit
-
(of radiation) produced at an undesired frequency by a transmitter, causing interference, etc
-
rare illegitimate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spurious
1590–1600; < Latin spurius bastard, perhaps < Etruscan; see -ous
Compare meaning
How does spurious compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Something false or inauthentic is spurious. Don't trust spurious ideas and stories. Spurious statements often are lies, just as a spurious coin is a counterfeit coin — a fake. Anytime you see the word spurious, you're dealing with things that can't be trusted or accepted at face value. A spurious claim is one that's not backed up by the facts. A spurious argument relies on faulty reasoning — and maybe some lies. Politicians often accuse each other of saying things that are spurious and meant to deceive the voters. As long as you're honest, clear, and not trying to trick anyone, nobody can say you're being spurious.
Vocabulary lists containing spurious
100 Top "SAT" Words
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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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.
The weekend edition of the Financial Times reports that a military aircraft entering "spurious" flight data into air traffic control led to a system outage that grounded thousands of planes this week.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
However, content creators the BBC has spoken to say Meta is poor at identifying obviously spurious cases, and say its appeals process is slow to respond unless you pay a monthly fee.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
That timing control helps researchers focus on periods when genuine scintillation light is most likely to be present while filtering out random background signals and other spurious counts.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
A spokesperson for Onset said the creditor committee’s claims are “unsupported and baseless and strategically made as part of a spurious scorched-earth litigation tactic to serve their own financial interests in this bankruptcy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
Actually he had been interested in the horoscope for a spurious birth date but Mack had never mentioned it again and so Doc forgot it.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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.
