Standard Lemma guide

pseudoscience

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈs(j)uː.dəʊ.saɪ.əns/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: S UW2 D OW0 S AY1 AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any body of knowledge that purports to be scientific or to be supported by science (or may appear to be scientific) but which fails to comply with the scientific method (or rather, is not true science).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, derogatory, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Fictitious science as portrayed in science fiction.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

an activity resembling science but based on fallacious assumptions

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: fallacy, false belief

Narrower terms: astrology, star divination, alchemy

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek ψεύδω (pseúdō) Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-ēs Ancient Greek -ης (-ēs) Ancient Greek -ής (-ḗs) Ancient Greek ψευδής (pseudḗs)der. Middle English pseudo- English pseudo- Proto-Indo-European *sek-? Proto-Indo-European *-éyti Proto-Indo-European *skey-der. Latin sciō Latin sciēns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin scientialbor. Old French sciencebor. Middle English science English science English pseudoscience From pseudo- + science, first attested in 1796, in reference to alchemy.

Across languages

Translations

61 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: pseudowetenskap — purported science
  • Azerbaijani: yalan elmlər — purported science
  • Bulgarian: лъженаука (lǎženauka) — purported science
  • Bulgarian: псевдонаука (psevdonauka) — purported science
  • Catalan: pseudociència — purported science
  • Chinese Cantonese: 偽科學 /伪科学 (ngai6 fo1 hok6) — purported science
  • Chinese Mandarin: 偽科學 /伪科学 (wěikēxué) — purported science
  • Czech: pavěda — purported science
  • Czech: pseudověda — purported science
  • Danish: pseudovidenskab — purported science
  • Dutch: pseudowetenschap — purported science
  • Esperanto: pseŭdoscienco — purported science
  • Esperanto: falsscienco — purported science
  • Estonian: pseudoteadus — purported science
  • Finnish: pseudotiede — purported science
  • Finnish: näennäistiede — purported science
  • French: pseudo-science — purported science
  • Georgian: ფსევდომეცნიერება (psevdomecniereba) — purported science
  • German: Pseudowissenschaft — purported science
  • Greek: ψευδοεπιστήμη (psevdoepistími) — purported science
  • Gujarati: છદ્મવિજ્ઞાન (chadmavijñān) — purported science
  • Gujarati: સ્યુડોસાયન્સમાં (syuḍosāyansamā̃) — purported science
  • Hungarian: áltudomány — purported science
  • Icelandic: hjáfræði — purported science
  • Indonesian: ilmu semu — purported science
  • Indonesian: pseudosains — purported science
  • Italian: pseudoscienza — purported science
  • Japanese: 疑似科学 (gijikagaku) — purported science
  • Kazakh: жалған ғылым (jalğan ğylym) — purported science
  • Korean: 의사과학 (uisagwahak) — purported science
  • Korean: 유사과학 (yusagwahak) — purported science
  • Korean: 사이비과학 (saibigwahak) — purported science
  • Central Kurdish: زِڕزانِست (zirrzanist) — purported science
  • Latvian: pseidozinātne — purported science
  • Lithuanian: pseudomokslas — purported science
  • Malayalam: കപടശാസ്ത്രം (kapaṭaśāstraṁ) — purported science
  • Norwegian Bokmål: pseudovitenskap — purported science
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: pseudovitskap — purported science
  • Persian: شبهعلم — purported science
  • Middle Persian: - (/⁠mānāgdānišn⁠/) — purported science
  • Polish: pseudonauka — purported science
  • Portuguese: pseudociência — purported science
  • Romanian: pseudoștiință — purported science
  • Russian: псевдонау́ка (psevdonaúka) — purported science
  • Russian: лженау́ка (lženaúka) — purported science
  • Serbo-Croatian: pseudoznanost — purported science
  • Sicilian: psiuduscènzia — purported science
  • Sicilian: scènzia fausa — purported science
  • Slovak: paveda — purported science
  • Slovene: psevdoznanost — purported science
  • Spanish: pseudociencia — purported science
  • Swedish: pseudovetenskap — purported science
  • Tamil: போலி அறிவியல் (pōli aṟiviyal) — purported science
  • Thai: วิทยาศาสตร์เทียม — purported science
  • Turkish: sahte bilim — purported science
  • Ukrainian: псевдонау́ка (psevdonaúka) — purported science
  • Ukrainian: лженау́ка (lženaúka) — purported science
  • Uzbek: soxta fan — purported science
  • Vietnamese: ngụy khoa học — purported science
  • Vietnamese: giả khoa học — purported science
  • Welsh: ffugwyddor — purported science