Sophistry

Noun

 * 1)  An argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so.
 * 2)  The art of using deceptive speech or writing.
 * 3)  Cunning or trickery.

Adjectives for Sophistry
subtle; pompous; wild; delinquent; apparent.

Thesaurus
Italian hand, acuteness, aesthetics, ambiguity, argument, argument by analogy, argumentum ad baculum, argumentum ad captandum, argumentum ad hominem, art, artfulness, artifice, astuteness, axiology, bad case, begging the question, cageyness, callidity, canniness, casuistry, circular argument, claptrap, cleverness, college of Laputa, corruption, cosmology, craft, craftiness, crossed fingers, crowd-pleasing argument, cunning, cunningness, deception, deceptiveness, deduction, deductive reasoning, delusion, demonstration, discourse, discourse of reason, discursive reason, disingenuousness, emptiness, empty words, epistemology, equivocation, ethics, fallacy, fine Italian hand, finesse, first philosophy, formal fallacy, foxiness, gamesmanship, gnosiology, guile, hollow mockery, hollowness, hysteron proteron, induction, inductive reasoning, ingeniousness, insidiousness, insincere argument, insincerity, inventiveness, jesuitry, logic, logical fallacy, logical thought, material fallacy, mental philosophy, mere rhetoric, metaphysics, misdirection, misguidance, misinformation, misinstruction, misknowledge, misleading, misteaching, mockery, moonshine, moral philosophy, mystification, non sequitur, obfuscation, obscurantism, obscuration, one-upmanship, ontology, paralogism, perversion, petitio principii, phenomenology, philosophastry, philosophic doctrine, philosophic system, philosophic theory, philosophical inquiry, philosophical speculation, philosophism, philosophy, proof, pseudosyllogism, ratiocination, rationalism, rationality, rationalization, rationalizing, readiness, reason, reasonableness, reasoning, resourcefulness, satanic cunning, school of philosophy, school of thought, science of being, sharpness, shiftiness, shrewdness, slipperiness, slyness, sneakiness, solecism, sophism, specious reasoning, speciousness, spuriousness, stealth, stealthiness, subtilty, subtleness, subtlety, suppleness, sweet reason, tergiversation, theory of beauty, theory of knowledge, tongue in cheek, trickiness, uncandidness, uncandor, unfrankness, value theory, verbal fallacy, wariness, weak point, wiles, wiliness, wit

Etymology
From sophistrie: <  sophista: <  σοφιστής: < σοφίζω: < σοφός:

Translations

 * Polish: sofistyka

Related terms

 * Sophia
 * sophism
 * sophist
 * sophistication