different between falseness vs fallacy

English

Etymology

false +? -ness

Noun

falseness (countable and uncountable, plural falsenesses)

1. The characteristic of being false.
   • 2016, Justin Deschamps:

     All falseness collapses under the weight of denied truth.

Usage notes

• Falsehood, Falseness, Falsity; untruth, fabrication, fiction. Instances may be quoted in abundance from old authors to show that the first three words are often strictly synonymous; but the modern tendency has been decidedly in favor of separating them, falsehood standing for the concrete thing, an intentional lie; falseness, for the quality of being guiltily false or treacherous: as, he is justly despised for his falseness to his oath; and falsity, for the quality of being false without blame: as, the falsity of reasoning. — The Century Dictionary, 1911.

Synonyms

• fabrication
• falsehood, falsity
• fiction
• untruth
• See also Thesaurus:falsehood

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Old French fallace, from Latin fallacia (“deception, deceit”), from fallax (“deceptive, deceitful”), from fallere (“to deceive”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fæl?si/

Noun

fallacy (plural fallacies)

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

   • 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.

   Synonyms: deception, deceitfulness

2. (logic) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not. A specious argument.

Derived terms

• fallacious

Related terms

• fail
• fallible
• logical fallacy
• formal fallacy
• informal fallacy
• pathetic fallacy

Translations

See also

• sophism
• Appendix:Glossary of fallacies

Further reading

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