3

For example, you're doing a research for a car to purchase. You get a list of cars with engine number, city where a car was assembled, and a color. What's missing is make, model and price.

Ellie Kesselman
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Yuriy Zubarev
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  • Misinforming, maybe? – Mateen Ulhaq Nov 16 '11 at 05:57
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    We're really trying to avoid using this site for "single word requests." If you have a particularly interesting problem to solve, all we ask is that you put a bit of effort and research into the question. See: http://meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/1654/against-single-word-requests/1737#1737 or http://meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/2160/single-word-requests-crosswords-and-the-fight-against-mediocrity – Robert Cartaino Nov 16 '11 at 15:05

4 Answers4

6

When it's done deliberately, it's obfuscation.

Optimal Cynic
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5

The irrelevant information could be described as a smokescreen.

Stuart Allen
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3

To sidetrack is to direct a person's attention away from the relevant subject to an irrelevant one.

2

Specifications can be slanted, imperfect, flawed, missing, incomplete, deficient, deceptive, blemished, embellished, camouflaged, cherry-picked, or corrupt because of mendacity, laziness, misinformation, turpitude, equivocation, double dealing, a shell game, forgetfulness, delay, propagandizing, or random error; no one word will fit all cases. Other possibly related phrases: pull the wool over your eyes, sell you some snakeoil, rigamarole, specmanship.

James Waldby - jwpat7
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