CEFR B1

captious

adjective

Meaning

captious means that captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical. It can have more than one sense, so use the alternate meanings and examples to choose the meaning that matches your sentence.

Examples

The writer described the response as captious.
A captious tone can change the mood of a conversation.

Synonyms: carping, critical, faultfinding, hypercritical, nitpicky

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captious (B1)

adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈkæpʃəs/

Definition

captious means that captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical. It can have more than one sense, so use the alternate meanings and examples to choose the meaning that matches your sentence.

Examples

The writer described the response as captious.
A captious tone can change the mood of a conversation.
The situation became captious after the announcement.

How to Use captious

captious + noun (collocation): Use captious before a noun to describe that quality. — "The writer described a captious reaction."
become captious (collocation): Use after become, seem, or be for a state or quality. — "The discussion became captious near the end."

Synonyms of captious

Words with a similar meaning to captious:

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