Spotting It in Real Talk

Equivocation rarely arrives labeled. Picture a dinner-table claim: "Experts should be trusted. My uncle is an expert griller. Therefore, my uncle should be trusted." The slip lives in the middle term, expert, so that is the word to test.

First it means deep skill at one task — grilling. Then it quietly stretches to all-around trustworthiness. When you catch a word doing double duty like this, ask what each premise really means by it. Pin the term to one sense, and the argument usually stops sounding so convincing.