Contextomy
Occurs when words are selectively excerpted from their original context in a way that changes or distorts what the speaker meant.
TacticalLinguistic
Intermediate
High school
Category
Linguistic
Confusion created by wording, ambiguity, framing, or unstable definitions.
Continuum fallacy
Occurs when a claim is rejected simply because the concept involved has blurry boundaries rather than a perfectly sharp cutoff.
ConceptualLinguistic
Intermediate
High school
Definist fallacy
Occurs when a substantive question is illegitimately 'solved' by defining one contested concept into another.
LinguisticConceptual
Intermediate
High school
Equivocation
Occurs when a key word or phrase slides between different meanings inside the same argument, creating the illusion of support.
Linguistic
Foundational
Middle school+
Equivocation fallacy
Occurs when a broad or harmless sense of a word is used to insinuate a narrower, stronger, or more loaded sense of the same word.
Linguistic
Intermediate
High school
Etymological fallacy
Occurs when a word's original or historical meaning is treated as if it controlled the word's present meaning.
Linguistic
Intermediate
High school
Fallacy of necessity
Occurs when a condition that is necessary given someone's current description is treated as if it were permanently or universally necessary in the real world.
LinguisticConceptual
Intermediate
High school
Genetic fallacy
Occurs when a claim, practice, or idea is judged mainly by its origin rather than by its present content, evidence, or merits.
LinguisticConceptual
Advanced
Intro college
Intentional fallacy
Occurs when the creator's intended meaning is treated as irrelevant in contexts where that intention is actually important to understanding the work or statement.
PerspectivalLinguistic
Intermediate
High school
No True Scotsman
Occurs when someone protects a generalization from counterexamples by redefining the group with an ad hoc 'real' or 'true' membership test.
ConceptualLinguistic
Foundational
Middle school+
Overwhelming exception
Occurs when a general principle is padded with so many exceptions that it no longer guides action or says much of substance.
LinguisticConceptual
Advanced
Intro college
Proof by verbosity
Occurs when a claim is protected by an avalanche of words, side points, jargon, or branching assertions that overwhelm reasonable scrutiny and create the illusion of dept...
TacticalLinguistic
Intermediate
High school
Reification
Occurs when an abstraction is spoken of as if it were a concrete agent or thing in a way that misleads rather than merely using harmless metaphor.
ConceptualLinguisticPerspectival
Intermediate
High school
Semantic pixelization
Occurs when a fuzzy, graded, or probabilistic position is forced into unnaturally sharp categories so it becomes easier to attack.
Linguistic
Intermediate
High school
Suppressed correlative
Occurs when one term in a meaningful contrast is redefined so broadly or so narrowly that its opposing term can no longer do any work.
ConceptualLinguistic
Intermediate
High school