Descriptionary

fallacious adj. (fuh LAY shus) false; erroneous. You have no facts or statistics to back up your statements, so I suspect your argument is completely fallacious.

fallacy n. (FAL uh see) a popularly held belief that isn't true. That the Sun orbits the Earth instead of the other way around is a popular fallacy.

fallible adj. (FAL uh bul) capable of making errors; imperfect. Human beings are not computers; we are fallible.

fanatical adj. (fuh NAT uh kul) devoted and pas­sionate; zealous; extreme. My best friend is fanati­cal about basketball and watches at least six college games every weekend.

farcical adj. (FARS i kul) absurd; ludicrous. Our attempts to put on a serious show turned farcical as the PA system broke and a spotlight came crashing down on the stage.

fastidious adj. (fah STID ee us) meticulous; needing and arranging things just so. He was a fastidious man who never seemed to have a single hair out of place.

faux pas n. (foh PAH) a social blunder. Forgetting the names of people you have just been introduced to is a common faux pas.

fawn vb. (FAWN) to try desperately to please some­one by flattery and servile behavior. We watch in dis­gust as the underlings all fawn over the president.

feign vb. (FAYN) to fake or invent. Students and employees alike tend to feign illness most often on Mondays.

felonious adj. (fel OHN ee us) criminal; evil. His intentions of withdrawing money from the bank were purely felonious.

fervent adj. (FUR vunt) passionate; heated. She had a fervent desire to play in a professional soccer league.

fickle adj. (FIK ul) changing or likely to change often; capricious. Some teenagers are fickle and may have a crush on somebody new every month.

fidelity n. (fi DEL uh tee) loyalty; faithfulness. If your husband stayed out last night until 4 a.m., I would have to question his fidelity.

figurative adj. (FIG yur uh tiv) not literal; meta­phorical. He claimed he would "die" if he didn't get an ice cream cone, but his statement was figurative; people can survive indefinitely without ice cream.

figurehead n. (FIG yur HED) one who appears to be in charge and have the power but in fact does not. Some presidents are just figureheads; it's their spouses who may have the real power.

finagle vb. (fin AY gul) to manipulate, maneuver, and pull strings to get something. My agent tried to finagle a deal in which I would play the lead in a new movie with the Muppets.