Meanings
plural fallacies
- Deceptive or false appearance; that which misleads the eye or the mind.
I no longer believe in happiness, because I see the fallacy of my first belief; and the examination which that induced, has shewn me the fallacy of all. Shew me a heart without its hidden wound.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 108–1091 more example
Mr Jones expressed great gratitude to the lady for the kind intentions towards him which she had expressed, and indeed testified, by this proposal; but, besides intimating some diffidence of success from the lady’s knowledge of his love to her niece, which had not been her case in regard to Mr Fitzpatrick, he said, he was afraid Miss Western would never agree to an imposition of this kind, as well from her utter detestation of all fallacy as from her avowed duty to her aunt.
1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLCSynonyms: deception, deceitfulness
- human sciencesAn argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a specious argument.
Baldridge also showed the "one molecule of blood," usually held to be the stimulus for attracting sharks, to be another common fallacy, since a molecule of blood does not exist.
1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 163Synonyms: logical fallacy, incorrect argument, misargument, non-argument, pseudoargument
Synonyms & antonyms
nounDeceptive or false appearance; that which misleads the eye or the mind.
nounAn argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a specious argument.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinfallācia“deception, deceit”
- Old Frenchfallace
- Middle Englishfallaci
- Englishfallacy
From Middle English fallaci, fallace, fallas, from Old French fallace (whence -acy), from Latin fallācia (“deception, deceit”), from fallāx (“deceptive, deceitful”), from fallere (“to deceive”).
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek παραλογισμός
- παραλογισμός (paralogismós)false argument
Arabic مُغَالَطَة
- مُغَالَطَة (muḡālaṭa)false argument
Bulgarian заблуда, софизъм
- заблуда (zabluda)deceptive or false appearance
- софизъм (sofizăm)false argument
Catalan fal·làcia
- fal·làciafalse argument
Chinese Mandarin 謬誤 /谬误
- 謬誤 /谬误 (miùwù)false argument
Czech klam, logický klam
- klamdeceptive or false appearance
- logický klamfalse argument
Danish fejlslutning
- fejlslutningfalse argument
Dutch bedrieglijkheid, drogreden
- bedrieglijkheiddeceptive or false appearance
- drogredenfalse argument
- schijnredenfalse argument
- sofismefalse argument
Esperanto sofismo
- sofismodeceptive or false appearance
Finnish harha, argumentointivirhe
- harhadeceptive or false appearance
- argumentointivirhefalse argument
- virhepäätelmäfalse argument
- virhefalse argument
French tromperie, sophisme
- tromperiedeceptive or false appearance
- sophismefalse argument
German Täuschung, Trugschluss
- Täuschungdeceptive or false appearance
- Trugschlussfalse argument
- Fehlschlussfalse argument
Greek πλάνη
- πλάνη (pláni)deceptive or false appearance
Hindi मिथ्या, मिथ्या
- मिथ्या (mithyā)deceptive or false appearance
- मिथ्या (mithyā)false argument
Hungarian megtévesztés, félrevezetés
- megtévesztésdeceptive or false appearance
- félrevezetésdeceptive or false appearance
Icelandic rökvilla
- rökvillafalse argument
Irish lúb ar lár
- lúb ar lárfalse argument
Italian fallacia
- fallaciafalse argument
Japanese いんちき, 欺瞞
- いんちき (inchiki)deceptive or false appearance
- 欺瞞 (giman)deceptive or false appearance
- 欺騙 (gihen)deceptive or false appearance
- 誤謬 (gobyū)false argument
- 詭弁 (kiben)false argument
- 迷妄 (meimō)false argument
Māori pōhēhētanga
- pōhēhētangadeceptive or false appearance
Norwegian Bokmål tankefeil
- tankefeilfalse argument
Polish błąd logiczny, sofizmat
- błąd logicznydeceptive or false appearance
- sofizmatfalse argument
Portuguese ilusão, falácia
- ilusãodeceptive or false appearance
- faláciafalse argument
Romanian sofism
- sofismfalse argument
Russian обма́нчивость, заблужде́ние
- обма́нчивость (obmánčivostʹ)deceptive or false appearance
- заблужде́ние (zabluždénije)false argument
- ло́жный вы́вод (lóžnyj vývod)false argument
- софи́зм (sofízm)false argument
Spanish falacia
- falaciafalse argument
Swedish bedräglighet, felslut
- bedräglighetdeceptive or false appearance
- felslutfalse argument
Tagalog kasinsayan
- kasinsayanfalse argument
Thai ตรรกวิบัติ
- ตรรกวิบัติ (dtàk-gà-wí-bàt)false argument
Turkish mantıksızlık, mugalata
- mantıksızlıkdeceptive or false appearance
- mugalatadeceptive or false appearance
- yanlışdeceptive or false appearance
- yanlış düşüncedeceptive or false appearance
- yanlış inanışdeceptive or false appearance
- yanılgıdeceptive or false appearance
- yanılımfalse argument
- aldatıfalse argument
Ukrainian ома́на, ома́на
- ома́на (omána)deceptive or false appearance
- ома́на (omána)false argument
Urdu مُغالطَہ
- مُغالطَہ (mughalta)deceptive or false appearance
Vietnamese ngụy biện, ngộ biện
- ngụy biệndeceptive or false appearance
- ngộ biệndeceptive or false appearance
- ngộ biệnfalse argument
Welsh camsyniad
- camsyniadfalse argument
Cite this entry
fallacy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fallacy
“fallacy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fallacy. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fallacy,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fallacy.
Source: fallacy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.