spurious

Advancedzipf 2.96

Pronunciation

/ˈspjʊəriəs/(SPYOOR-ee-us)

Part of speech

adjectiveformal

Chinese

虚假的；伪造的；站不住脚的

Definition

Not genuine, authentic, or true; based on false reasoning.

Word family

  • spuriously/ˈspjʊəriəsli/(adv)虚假地
  • spuriousness/ˈspjʊəriəsnəs/(n)

Collocations

  • spurious claim
  • spurious argument
  • spurious correlation
  • spurious evidence

Examples

  1. 1.The report was based on spurious data and cannot be trusted. (false)
  2. 2.The correlation between ice cream sales and crime is spurious. (misleading, not causally connected)

Synonyms

  • false/fɔːls/— not true
  • bogus/ˈbəʊɡəs/— fake, informal
  • fraudulent/ˈfrɔːdjʊlənt/— deliberately deceptive

Etymology

from Latin "spurius" = illegitimate — not genuine, not the real thing