sophistical

• HYPHEN: so=phis=ti=cal

CIDE DICTIONARY

sophistical, a. [L. sophisticus, Gr. : cf. F. sophistique.].

 Of or pertaining to a sophist; embodying sophistry; fallaciously subtile; not sound.  [1913 Webster]
"His argument . . . is altogether sophistical."  [1913 Webster]

THESAURUS

sophistical

Machiavellian, Machiavellic, acute, apparently sound, arch, artful, astute, cagey, canny, casuistic, clever, colorable, crafty, cunning, cute, deceitful, deceptive, deep, deep-laid, designing, diplomatic, dishonest, disingenuous, empty, fallacious, feline, foxy, guileful, hollow, illusive, ingenious, insidious, insincere, inventive, jesuitic, knowing, mealymouthed, overrefined, oversubtle, pawky, philosophicojuristic, philosophicoreligious, philosophistic, plausible, politic, ready, resourceful, scheming, serpentine, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky, sophistic, specious, stealthy, strategic, subtile, subtle, supple, tactical, tongue in cheek, trickish, tricksy, tricky, uncandid, unfrank, unserious, vulpine, wary, wily

ROGET THESAURUS

sophistical

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.