Equivocation

From RationalWiki

Equivocation is a logical fallacy that relies on the different meanings a word can have in different contexts. It is a favorite fallacy of creationist and woo hucksters alike. It can be used both to seemingly belittle a concept or idea, or to raise one up to false pretenses. Probably the most common example is the creationist use of the phrase "evolution is just a theory." This is an equivocation of the term "theory" as it is used in common parlance versus the specific meaning it has in science. Other times it can be used to disguise bullshit like in sham quantum physics where people like Deepak Chopra use equivocation to make their ideas sound like they have some basis in reality.

A political version would be asserting that all Socialists are Nazis, because the Nazis called themselves the "National Socialist Party".

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• Technobabble

Articles about logical fallacies
Formal fallacies
Ad hominem	Argument by assertion	Negative proof	Non sequitur
Informal fallacies
Ad hoc	Argumentum ad nauseam	Argumentum ex culo	Argument from ignorance	Argument from incredulity	Balance fallacy
Begging the question	Correlation does not equal causation	Equivocation	False analogy	False dilemma	Moving the goalposts
No True Scotsman	One single proof
Red herrings
Argumentum ad baculum	Argumentum ad populum	Argument from adverse consequences	Association fallacy	Bullshit	Poisoning the well
My enemy's enemy	Spotlight fallacy	Straw man	Style over substance fallacy	Texas sharpshooter fallacy
Conditional fallacies
Argument from authority	Galileo gambit	Slippery slope
Fallacious argument styles
Chewbacca Defense	Gish Gallop	Ham Hightail	JAQing off