| Main Entry: | sophistry |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | sophism |
Synonyms: |
deception, fallacy, misconception, subtle argument |
| Main Entry: | sophistry |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | deception |
Synonyms: |
ambiguity, casuistry, fallacy, inconsistency, paralogism, paralogy, trickery |
| Main Entry: | casuistry |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | overgeneral reasoning |
Synonyms: |
chicanery, deception, deceptiveness, delusion, equivocation, evasion, fallacy, lie, oversubtleness, sophism, sophistry, speciousness, spuriousness, trick |
| Main Entry: | chicanery |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | deception, trickery |
Synonyms: |
artifice, cheating, chicane, deviousness, dishonesty, dodge, double-crossing, double-dealing, duplicity, feint, fourberie, fraud, furtiveness, gambit, hanky-panky, intrigue, machination, maneuver, plot, ploy, ruse, sharp practice, skullduggery, sophistry, stratagem, subterfuge, surreptitiousness, underhandedness, wiles |
| Notes: | duplicity implies double-dealing while chicanery suggests trickery and wiliness |
Antonyms: |
forthrightness, honesty, truthfulness |
| Main Entry: | equivocation |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | avoidance of an issue |
Synonyms: |
ambiguity, amphibology, casuistry, coloring, con, cop out, cover, cover-up, deceit, deception, deceptiveness, delusion, dissimulation, distortion, double entendre, double meaning, double talk, doubtfulness, duplicity, equivocality, evasion, fallacy, fib, fibbing, hedging, lie, line*, lying, misrepresentation, prevarication, quibbling routine, run-around, shuffling, song and dance, song*, sophistry, speciousness, spuriousness, stall, stonewall, tergiversation, waffle |
Antonyms: |
directness, facing, meeting |
| Main Entry: | evasion |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | escape, avoidance |
Synonyms: |
artifice, circumvention, cop-out, cunning, ditch*, dodge*, dodging, elusion, equivocating, equivocation, eschewal, evading, evasiveness, excuse, fancy footwork, fudging, fugiviteness, fugivity, jive, lie, obliqueness, pretext, prevarication, quibble, routine, run-around, ruse, shift, shirking, shuffling, shunning, slip*, sophism, sophistry, stall, stonewall, subterfuge, trick, trickery |
Antonyms: |
directness, facing, meeting |
| Main Entry: | fallacy |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | illusion, misconception |
Synonyms: |
aberration, ambiguity, artifice, bias, casuistry, cavil, deceit, deception, deceptiveness, delusion, deviation, elusion, equivocation, erratum, erroneousness, error, evasion, falsehood, faultiness, flaw, heresy, illogicality, inconsistency, inexactness, invalidity, misapprehension, miscalculation, misconstrual, misinterpretation, mistake, non sequitur, notion, paradox, perversion, preconception, prejudice, quibbling, quirk, solecism, sophism, sophistry, speciousness, subterfuge, untruth |
Antonyms: |
certainty, evidence, fact, honesty, reality, right, surety, truth |
| Main Entry: | hairsplitting |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | nitpicking |
Synonyms: |
bickering, carping, caviling, faultfinding, perfectionism, pettiness, quibbling, sophistry |
| Main Entry: | sophism |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | fallacy |
Synonyms: |
absurdity, deception, fallacious argument, misconception, sophistry |
| Main Entry: | double talk |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | talk intended to confuse |
Synonyms: |
babble, doublespeak, drivel, gibberish, hogwash, malarkey, nonsense, sophistry |