valid

valid, sound, cogent, convincing, compelling, telling can all be applied directly or indirectly to arguments, reasons, principles, or processes of thought or to their presentation and mean having or manifesting the power to impress themselves on others as right and well-grounded. Valid and sound both imply that the power is inherent in the rationality or logicality of the thought apart from its presentation.

Something is valid against which no objections can be maintained, because it conforms strictly to the law or regulations (as of the state or the church)

{

hold a valid title to a piece of property

}

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a valid ordination

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a valid marriage

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or because it is supported or justified by facts and correct reasoning

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a valid argument

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valid evidence

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{

universally valid principles— Inge

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or, less often, because it is fully in accordance with claims or promises made for it and is entirely effectual or efficacious

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a valid method of testing intelligence

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{

these folkways remain valid for anybody who gets solace from them— Wouk

}

A person or a thing is sound that is free from error or fault in his or its processes of thought and that avoids fallacies, insufficient evidence, hasty con-clusions, or superficiality. The term not only suggests flawlessness in reasoning but solidity in the grounds upon which this reasoning is based

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a sound thinker

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his assurance that he had never used an argument which he did not believe to be sound— Inge

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{

to admit . . . that reason cannot extend into the religious sphere is absolutely sound so long as we realize that reason has a coordinate right to lay down the rules in its own sphere of intelligence— Ellis

}

Something cogent or convincing or compelling commands mental assent.

But cogent tends to stress a power or force resident in the argument or reasoning that makes it conclusive, convincing suggests a power to overcome doubt, opposition, or reluctance to accept, and compelling calls particular attention to the substantial nature of the objective evidence

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the remarks of Gibbon [on universities and their degrees] are still . . . cogent— Aldington

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there are other ways of making a thing . . . convincing . . . besides merely appealing to one's logic and sense of fact— Babbitt

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so expressed, the argument does not sound strongly convincing; but it is really cogent, and the conclusion is sound— Darrow

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{

though his logic is often unconvincing, his documentation is always compelling— Muller

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Something telling produces at once the desired effect; frequently the term implies the compelling of assent but it seldom directly suggests soundness or cogency though, in general, it does not deny the existence of these qualities

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the first speaker for the affirmative used far more telling arguments than the second speaker

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every point made by the prosecuting attorney was telling

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The term is often applied to words, phrases, tones of expression, or rhetorical methods which convince, persuade, or win admiration and support because of their pertinency, their suitability, or their forcibleness

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a telling illustration of what Darwin unintentionally did to the minds of his disciples— Shaw

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{

such telling effects of contrast as the Japanese [artists] produced by an empty space— Binyony

}

Analogous words: *conclusive, determinative, definitive, decisive: *effective, effectual: legal, *lawful, licit: *logical, analytical, subtle

Antonyms: fallacious, sophistical