Link Centre Dictionary

spurious

spu·rious

UK/ˈspjʊə.ɹi.əs/ US/ˈspjɔː-/ rare archaic

adjective

1.

plausible but false

  • “specious reasoning”
  • “the spurious inferences from obsolescent notions of causality” Ethel Albert
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2.

born out of wedlock

  • “the dominions of both rulers passed away to their spurious or doubtful offspring” E.A.Freeman
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3.

intended to deceive

  • “a spurious work of art”
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Origin

Borrowed from Late Latin spurius (“illegitimate, bastardly”), possibly related to sperno or from Etruscan.

Phrases

  • spurious diphthong
  • spurious infection
  • spurious language

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.