specious
SPEE-shusadjMeaning seeming true or right at first but false underneath
Memory hook SEE? SHUSH! Don’t check it. “See? Shush, don’t check!” says the salesman, because his claim only sounds right until someone looks closely. It is specious.
The ad’s specious promise that the shoes would make anyone run faster fooled no one on the track team.
In context Dev’s argument sounded convincing at first, but it was specious: when his sister checked the numbers, every one of his facts turned out to be wrong.
Similar misleading, deceptive, false, hollow
Opposite sound, valid, genuine
From Latin speciosus, “good-looking, showy,” from species, “appearance,” from specere (to look). It once meant simply “fair to see.”