Spurious: meaning, example and synonyms
Spuriousadj. False or fake, though made to look genuine; based on faulty reasoning.
Example
The apparent link between the two variables turned out to be spurious, explained entirely by a third factor the original study had overlooked.
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Synonyms
- false, bogus, fake, counterfeit
- Antonyms
- genuine, authentic, valid, legitimate
- Memory tip
- Spurious sounds like "spoof-ious": a spoof dressed up as the real thing.
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Check yourself: Spurious in context
The study's claim that ice cream sales cause sunburns was ______; both simply rise during hot, sunny weeks.
Answer: spurious. Both rise with sunny weather, so the causal claim rests on faulty reasoning. The explanation after the semicolon shows the claim is false, not difficult, impossible or shapeless.
Reviewers rejected the paper because its central argument rested on ______ data: several of the survey responses had been entered twice to inflate the sample.
Answer: spurious. Responses entered twice to inflate the sample make the data fake while appearing genuine. Data can't be opinionated or exhausting, and the problem described is falseness, not unimportance.