not even wrong

English

Etymology

Generally attributed to theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli.

Adjective

not even wrong (not comparable)

1. (derogatory) Of a supposedly scientific argument or explanation: unable to be meaningfully discussed because it is based on fundamentally invalid reasoning or speculative premises that cannot be proven or falsified.
   • 1997, Electronics Now, volume 68, page 7:

     Your alternate name for “near monopoles” (magnets with one pole appearing much stronger than the other) is bad labwork—labwork so mesmerizingly awful that it flat out is not even wrong.

   • 2016, Arran Gare, The Philosophical Foundations of Ecological Civilization, page 3:

     Some physicists claim that the dominant research program, designed to overcome this situation, is not really science at all. As Peter Woit (2007) put it, it is not even wrong. If we ignore such critics of the state of physics and accept the mainstream view we are told that nature can only be understood through mathematics which now cannot be interpreted in non-mathematical language […]

See also

• unfalsifiable
• wrong on so many levels