A deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone.

synonyms: sophistication, sophistry.

Roget 477: intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling; presentiment, premonition; rule of thumb; superstition; astrology^†; faith (supposition) 514.    sophistry, paralogy^†, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion; chicane, chicanery; quiddet^†, quiddity; mystification; special pleading; speciousness etc. adj.; nonsense etc. 497; word sense, tongue sense.    false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning; petitio principii [Lat.], ignoratio elenchi [Lat.]; post hoc ergo propter hoc [Lat.]; non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius [Lat.].    misjudgment etc. 481; false teaching etc. 538.    sophism, solecism, paralogism^†; quibble, quirk, elenchus^†, elench^†, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet^†; inconsistency, antilogy^†; a delusion, a mockery, and a snare" [Denman]; claptrap, cant, mere words; lame and impotent conclusion" [Othello]. meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry; flaw in an argument; weak point, bad case.    overrefinement^†; hairsplitting etc. v.. ... show more

Roget 497: absurdity, absurdness etc. adj.; imbecility etc. 499; alogy^†, nonsense, utter nonsense; paradox, inconsistency; stultiloquy^†, stultiloquence^†; nugacity^†.    blunder, muddle, bull; Irishism^†, Hibernicism^†; slipslop^†; anticlimax, bathos; sophism etc. 477.    farce, galimathias^†, amphigouri^†, rhapsody; farrago etc. (disorder) 59; betise [Fr.]; extravagance, romance; sciamachy^†.    sell, pun, verbal quibble, macaronic^†.    jargon, fustian, twaddle, gibberish etc. (no meaning) 517; exaggeration etc. 549; moonshine, stuff; mare's nest, quibble, self-delusion.    vagary, tomfoolery, poppycock, mummery, monkey trick, boutade [Fr.], escapade.    ... show more

Dutch: drogreden, sofisme, sophisme
Polish: sofizmat