specious present
Americannoun
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.
But this present is not the momentary meeting-place of two eternities or the brief span of time which psychologists have named 'the specious present'.
From The Unity of Civilization by Various
When the finger-tip leaves the filled space, part of it, because of its length, has already, as it were, left the specious present, and has suffered the foreshortening effect of being relegated to the past.
From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Hugo Münsterberg
For practical purposes "the present" is what is known as "the specious present," which covers a certain ill-defined period of duration from which the instantaneous "present moment" is recognised to be a mere abstraction.
From The Misuse of Mind by Karin Stephen
The longest duration which we immediately feel is what is called the "specious present."
From Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann
Succession can occur within the specious present, of which we can distinguish some parts as earlier and others as later.
From The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell
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.
