speciosity
/ˌspiːʃiˈɒsɪti/
speciosity means the state or quality of being specious; speciousness. It carries an Arena rating of 1575, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, speciosity ranks #68 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,268 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,137 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,140 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
speciosity is pronounced /ˌspiːʃiˈɒsɪti/.
Why “speciosity” is a great word
A deceptive outward show of plausibility or attractiveness that masks falsity. From Middle English speciouste ("attractiveness"), from Late Latin speciōsitās ("good looks, beauty"), from Latin speciēs ("appearance, sight"). Unlike veracity, which denotes a commitment to truth, or candor, which implies honest openness, speciosity is a counterfeit of reason. It is the politician's perfectly phrased non-answer, the advertisement's elegantly misdirecting statistics, and the philosophical argument that rings with a beautiful, hollow chime of coherence—a glazed and polished surface that shows you only a flattering, false reflection of your own desire to believe.
Etymology
From Middle English speciouste (“attractiveness”), from Latin speciōsitās (“beauty”), from speciēs (“appearance”). By surface analysis, speci(ous) + -osity.
noun
- The state or quality of being specious; speciousness.
- A specious action, promise, ideology, etc.e.g.“Till deep misery, if nothing softer will, have driven you out of your Speciosites into your Sincerities; and you find there either is a Godlike in the world, or else ye are an unintelligible madness;” — 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 8, The Electon”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
- The state or quality of being speciose.e.g.“The circumstance that the proportion of taxa with 12 + 14 vertebrae increased in the lower categories is due to the speciosity of the Epinephelinae.” — 1960 December 30, Carl L[eavitt] Hubbs, “Fauna Japonica/Serranidae (Pisces). By Masao Katayama. […] Fauna Japonica/Cottidae (Pisces). By Masao Watanabe. […]”, in Copeia, number 4, Philadelphia, Pa.: A
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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