Sophistry - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

soph·ist·ry

Audio Help [sof-uh-stree] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -ries.

1.	a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.

2.	a false argument; sophism.

[Origin: 1300–50; ME sophistrie < MF, equiv. to sophistre sophister + -ie -y³

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Sophistry

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

soph·is·try Audio Help (sŏf'ĭ-strē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. soph·is·tries

Plausible but fallacious argumentation.
A plausible but misleading or fallacious argument.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sophistry

1340, from O.Fr. sophistrie, from M.L. sophistria, from L. sophista, sophistes (see sophist).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

sophistry
noun
a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone [syn: sophism]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sophistry

Fal"la*cy\, n.; pl. Fallacies. [OE. fallace, fallas, deception, F. fallace, fr. L. fallacia, fr. fallax deceitful, deceptive, fr. fallere to deceive. See Fail.]

1. Deceptive or false appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind; deception.

Winning by conquest what the first man lost, By fallacy surprised. --Milton.

2. (Logic) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a sophism.

Syn: Deception; deceit; mistake.

Usage: Fallacy, Sophistry. A fallacy is an argument which professes to be decisive, but in reality is not; sophistry is also false reasoning, but of so specious and subtle a kind as to render it difficult to expose its fallacy. Many fallacies are obvious, but the evil of sophistry lies in its consummate art. "Men are apt to suffer their minds to be misled by fallacies which gratify their passions. Many persons have obscured and confounded the nature of things by their wretched sophistry; though an act be never so sinful, they will strip it of its guilt." --South.

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