quackery

C2 Topic:Actions & Processes

US /ˈkwækəri/ UK /ˈkwækəri/ See IPA manual

Freq #100095

Meanings

1

noun
fraudulent or scientifically unsound medical practice, treatment, or advice

Regulators warned that the advertised miracle cure was dangerous quackery.
2

noun
dishonest pretension to expertise or the use of unsound methods in any field

The committee dismissed the consultant's method as statistical quackery.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · fraudulent or... health fraudmedical charlatanismpseudomedicine

2 noun · dishonest pretension to... charlatanism humbugpseudoscience

Opposites

legitimate practicescientific medicine

Word family

Derived forms antiquackery

Related forms quack charlatan fraudsnake oil

Etymology

Formed from quack + -ery. Quack in the sense "fraudulent healer" is short for quacksalver, from Dutch kwakzalver, literally a hawker or boaster about salves. The word broadened from medical fraud to pretended expertise in other fields.

Topics

Actions & Processes Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# quackery

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈkwækəri/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈkwækəri/
**Frequency rank:** 100095

## Meanings
1. fraudulent or scientifically unsound medical practice, treatment, or advice
2. dishonest pretension to expertise or the use of unsound methods in any field

## Examples
- Regulators warned that the advertised miracle cure was dangerous quackery.
- The committee dismissed the consultant's method as statistical quackery.

## Synonyms
- charlatanism
- health fraud
- pseudomedicine
- pseudoscience
- humbug

## Antonyms
- legitimate practice
- scientific medicine

## Derived Forms
- antiquackery

## Related Forms
- quack
- charlatan
- fraud
- snake oil

## Etymology
Formed from quack + -ery. Quack in the sense "fraudulent healer" is short for quacksalver, from Dutch kwakzalver, literally a hawker or boaster about salves. The word broadened from medical fraud to pretended expertise in other fields.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes
- Word Formation & Derivatives

markdown