- 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, pretendAnt:genuine••spurious, apocryphal, artificial, counterfeit, ersatz, syntheticThese 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.