zohnerism
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The dihydrogen monoxide parody is an example of the effects of Zohnerism."
- "When thinking about Zohnerism, the impeachment perpetrated on our president by the Democrat-led Congress comes to mind."
- "Is some form of Zohnerism (the use of a fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion) at work at the global level with a definite design? My gut feeling is a resounding YES."
- "As a member of generation X, I grew up watching Neethi Ravindran and Rini Simon on Doordarshan, when news used to be news and zohnerism hadn't tightened its clasp over Indian media houses, yet."
- "Zohnerism is today driving our daily consumption of news and shaping our understanding of most issues"
- "How frequently are we subject to Zohnerism strategies now. . . it seems as real as DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE.!!!"
Etymology
From Zohner + -ism. In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, gathered 43 votes (out of 50 ninth-graders surveyed) to ban a chemical that proved to be water. Zohner received the first prize at Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair for analysis of the results of his survey. In recognition of his experiment, journalist James K. Glassman coined the term "Zohnerism" to refer to "the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion".
Word Breakdown
- Suffix: Zohner