different between deceptive vs fallacious

English

Etymology

From Middle French déceptif, from Latin d?cept?vus, from d?cipi? (“I deceive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?.?s?p.t?v/

Adjective

deceptive (comparative more deceptive, superlative most deceptive)

1. Likely or attempting to deceive.

   Synonym: misleading

   • 1653, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, London: William Hunt, Scene 24, p. 521,^[1]

     […] others declare that no Creature can be made or transmuted into a better or worse, or transformed into another species […] and Martinus Delrio the Jesuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beast to be an illusion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature;

   • 1789, Thomas Holcroft (translator), The History of My Own Times by Frederick the Great, London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Part 1, Chapter 12, p. 163,^[2]

     […] at the opening of the campaign, the French, after various deceptive attempts on different places, suddenly invested Tournay.

   • 1846, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, London: John W. Parker, 2nd ed., 1847, Preliminary Essay, Chapter 2, p. 10,^[3]

     language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes

   • 1978, Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 2, p. 13,^[4]

     […] it is characteristic of TB that many of its symptoms are deceptive—liveliness that comes from enervation, rosy cheeks that look like a sign of health but come from fever—and an upsurge of vitality may be a sign of approaching death.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:deceptive

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

English

Etymology

fallacy +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?.?le?.??s/
• Rhymes: -e???s

Adjective

fallacious (comparative more fallacious, superlative most fallacious)

1. Characterized by fallacy; false or mistaken.
2. Deceptive or misleading.

Usage notes

• Nouns often used with "fallacious": argument, reasoning, etc.

Related terms

• fail
• failure
• fallacy
• fallibilism
• fallibilist
• fallibility
• fallible
• false
• falsifiable
• falsification
• falsificator
• falsifier
• falsify
• falsity

Translations

See also

• wrong
• incorrect
• illogical
• deceiving
• deceitful
• misleading
• delusive
• illusive
• illusory
• erroneous
• faulty
• specious

Further reading

• fallacious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fallacious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fallacious at OneLook Dictionary Search