sophistry; specious argument
Refers to clever but misleading reasoning, often used in logical, philosophical, or political contexts. Can imply intentional deception or fallacious logic.
彼の主張は詭弁に過ぎない。
His argument is nothing but sophistry.
He tries to outtalk his opponent by using sophistry.
詭弁 means sophistry or a deliberately misleading argument, while レトリック simply means rhetorical style and is not inherently deceptive.
sophist
Standard modern kanji form.
Outdated kanji form using 辯; rarely seen in modern texts.
Rarely used kanji form.
Rarely used kanji form.
From Chinese 詭辯/诡辩 (guǐbiàn). The kanji 詭 means 'deceive' or 'lie', and 弁 means 'speech' or 'argument'.