spurious

spurious
adjective

an attempt to be excused due to some spurious medical condition

Syn:
bogus, fake, false, counterfeit, forged, fraudulent, sham, artificial, imitation, simulated, feigned, deceptive, misleading, specious; informal phony, pretend
Ant:
genuine
••
spurious, apocryphal, artificial, counterfeit, ersatz, synthetic
These adjectives pertain to what is false or not what it appears to be, although not all have negative connotations. Artificial implies manmade, especially in imitation of something natural (artificial flowers; artificial turf). A synthetic substance or material is one produced by a chemical process and used as a substitute for the natural substance it resembles (boots made from synthetic rubber). Something that is counterfeit is an imitation of something else — usually something rarer, finer, or more valuable — and is intended to deceive or defraud (counterfeit bills). Spurious also means false rather than true or genuine, but it carries no strong implication of being an imitation (spurious letters falsely attributed to Winston Churchill). Ersatz refers to an artificial substitute that is usually inferior (ersatz tea made from tree bark and herbs). The meaning of apocryphal, however, is much more restricted. It applies to accounts of the past that are widely circulated but whose truth or accuracy are doubtful (an apocryphal story about George Washington as a boy).

Thesaurus of popular words. 2014.

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Synonyms:
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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Spurious — can refer to:tatistics* Spurious correlation or spurious relationshipRadio engineering* Spurious emissionCryptography* Spurious keyLiterature* Spurious quotationComputing* Spurious interrupt * Spurious wakeup …   Wikipedia

  • Spurious — Spu ri*ous (sp[=u] r[i^]*[u^]s), a. [L. spurius.] 1. Not proceeding from the true source, or from the source pretended; not genuine; counterfeit; false; adulterate. [1913 Webster] 2. Not legitimate; bastard; as, spurious issue. Her spurious… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • spurious — I adjective apocryphal, artificial, bogus, counterfeit, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, ersatz, fabricated, fake, faked, false, feigned, fictitious, forged, fraudulent, illegitimate, imitation, misrepresented, mock, pinchbeck, pretend, pseudo,… …   Law dictionary

  • spurious — 1590s, born out of wedlock, from L. spurius illegitimate, false (Cf. It. spurio, Sp. espurio), from spurius (n.) illegitimate child, probably from Etruscan spural public. Sense of having an irregular origin, not properly constituted is from… …   Etymology dictionary

  • spurious — *counterfeit, bogus, fake, sham, pseudo, pinchbeck, phony Analogous words: *false: simulated, feigned, shammed (see ASSUME): supposititious, reputed, putative (see SUPPOSED) Antonyms: genuine Contrasted words: *authentic, veritable, bona fide:… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • spurious — [adj] counterfeit, fake affected, apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bastard*, bent, bogus, bum, contrived, deceitful, deceptive, dummy*, ersatz, faked, false, feigned, forged, framed, illegitimate, imitation, makebelieve, mock, phony, pirate,… …   New thesaurus

  • spurious — ► ADJECTIVE 1) false or fake. 2) (of a line of reasoning) apparently but not actually valid. DERIVATIVES spuriously adverb spuriousness noun. ORIGIN Latin spurius false …   English terms dictionary

  • spurious — [spyoor′ē əs, spʉr′ē əs] adj. [L spurius, illegitimate (in LL, false), orig., a bastard < Etr] 1. Now Rare illegitimate; bastard 2. not true or genuine; false; counterfeit 3. Bot. like in appearance but unlike in structure or function 4. Radio …   English World dictionary

  • spurious — [[t]spjʊ͟əriəs[/t]] 1) ADJ GRADED: usu ADJ n (disapproval) Something that is spurious seems to be genuine, but is false. He was arrested in 1979 on spurious corruption charges... Quite a lot of allegations of misjustice are spurious. Syn: bogus,… …   English dictionary

  • spurious — adjective Etymology: Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin spurius false, from Latin, of illegitimate birth, from spurius, noun, bastard Date: 1598 1. of illegitimate birth ; bastard 2. outwardly similar or corresponding to something without having its… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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