1. plausible but false - a specious claim - spurious inferences • Syn: spurious • Similar to: false • Derivationally related forms: spuriousness (for: spurious), speciousness 2. based on pretense; deceptively pleasing - the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility - meretricious praise - a meretricious argument • Syn: gilded, meretricious • Similar to: insincere • Derivationally related forms: speciousness, meretriciousness (for: meretricious)