sophism

Meanings

1. The school of the sophists in antiquity; their beliefs and method of teaching philosophy and rhetoric.
2. A flawed argument, superficially correct in its reasoning, usually designed to deceive.
3. An intentional fallacy.
4. Sophistic, fallacious reasoning or argumentation.
5. Wisdom and knowledge.

1. Archaic spelling of Sufism.

Etymology

From Middle English sophim, from Old French soffime, sofime, sofisme, sophisme, from Latin sophisma (“fallacy, sophism”), from Ancient Greek σόφῐσμᾰ (sóphĭsmă), from σοφίζω (sophízō) + -μα (-ma).