# fallacy.wiki

> A field guide to 91 named logical fallacies in 11 clusters, grouped by what actually breaks in the reasoning: what each one is, an example of it in the wild, and the move that answers it. Every entry exists in both English and Arabic.

- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to share and adapt, including commercially and for model training, with attribution to fallacy.wiki.
- **Publisher:** phi holdings (https://phi.holdings).
- **Corpus last changed:** 2026-08-10. 91 entries, 11 clusters.
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/llms.txt
- Every entry below links to its plain-markdown form. The same path without `.md` is the same content as an HTML page for a person.

## The whole corpus in one fetch

- [Full text, English](https://fallacy.wiki/llms-full.txt): all 91 entries, complete, in one file.
- [Full text, Arabic](https://fallacy.wiki/ar/llms-full.txt): the same corpus in Arabic.
- [JSON corpus](https://fallacy.wiki/api/fallacies.json): every entry in both languages with its cluster, sources and neighbours, as structured data.

## Pages

- [The index](https://fallacy.wiki/index-of-fallacies/): The full searchable index, every entry with its definition. Accepts ?q= to filter.
- [Practice](https://fallacy.wiki/practice/): Self-check exercises: five question types drawn from all the entries.
- [The eleven clusters](https://fallacy.wiki/card/): A single reference card of the eleven clusters.
- [About this guide](https://fallacy.wiki/about/): How the guide was built, which reference works it cites, and what a fallacy guide cannot do.

## Clusters

- **Crowds and prestige** — Numbers, custom and status standing in for reasons (8): ad-populum, common-practice, tradition, novelty, snob-appeal, authority, false-attribution, ad-nauseam
- **Attacks on the source** — Judging the speaker instead of the argument (8): ad-hominem, tu-quoque, genetic, poisoning-well, quoting-out-of-context, guilt-by-association, reductio-ad-hitlerum, ad-lapidem
- **Emotional pressure** — Feeling recruited to do the work of evidence (8): appeal-emotion, fear, pity, force, flattery, spite, wishful-thinking, consequences
- **Distraction and distortion** — Moving the argument somewhere easier to win (13): straw-man, red-herring, loaded-question, gish-gallop, kettle-logic, motte-bailey, moving-goalposts, special-pleading, whataboutism, false-equivalence, style-over-substance, ad-hoc-rescue, unfalsifiability
- **Broken structure** — The form itself does not carry the conclusion (14): affirming-consequent, denying-antecedent, circular, equivocation, definist, reification, undistributed-middle, illicit-major, four-terms, existential, affirming-disjunct, masked-man, amphiboly, accent
- **False choices and ranges** — Options and spectrums squeezed out of shape (5): false-dilemma, slippery-slope, middle-ground, continuum, nirvana
- **Causal errors** — Sequence, coincidence and hindsight read as cause (7): post-hoc, correlation-causation, regression, gamblers, single-cause, hindsight, historians
- **Part and whole** — Traits smuggled between members and groups (4): composition, division, ecological, accident
- **Evidence and sampling** — The data that was gathered, and the data that was not (9): hasty-generalization, anecdotal, cherry-picking, survivorship, texas-sharpshooter, base-rate, conjunction, argument-from-silence, slothful-induction
- **Burden and ignorance** — Not knowing treated as knowing (3): appeal-ignorance, burden-shift, incredulity
- **Values and premises** — Hidden value claims doing the arguing (12): is-ought, appeal-nature, no-true-scotsman, false-analogy, sunk-cost, fallacy-fallacy, moralistic, just-world, two-wrongs, etymological, chronological-snobbery, package-deal

## Entries

- [Argumentum ad populum](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ad-populum.md): Treating the number of people who hold a belief as evidence that the belief is true.
- [Appeal to common practice](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/common-practice.md): Justifying an action because it is widely done, rather than because it is right.
- [Appeal to tradition](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/tradition.md): Holding that something is correct or best because it is long established.
- [Appeal to novelty](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/novelty.md): Holding that something is better simply because it is newer.
- [Snob appeal](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/snob-appeal.md): Treating association with an elite or admired group as evidence of quality.
- [Appeal to authority](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/authority.md): Citing an authority as proof when the authority is outside their field, is not a consensus, or gives no reasons.
- [False attribution](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-attribution.md): Supporting a claim with a source that is irrelevant, unqualified, unnamed, or invented.
- [Argumentum ad nauseam](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ad-nauseam.md): Treating repetition as if it were support, so a claim gains credibility by being said often.
- [Ad hominem](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ad-hominem.md): Rejecting an argument by attacking the character or circumstances of the person making it.
- [Tu quoque](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/tu-quoque.md): Dismissing a claim because the speaker does not live up to it.
- [Genetic fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/genetic.md): Judging a claim by where it came from rather than what it says.
- [Poisoning the well](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/poisoning-well.md): Discrediting a person in advance so that whatever they say is received as suspect.
- [Quoting out of context](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/quoting-out-of-context.md): Removing words from their surroundings so they carry a meaning the speaker did not intend.
- [Guilt by association](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/guilt-by-association.md): Rejecting a position because a disliked group also holds it.
- [Reductio ad Hitlerum](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/reductio-ad-hitlerum.md): Treating a view as refuted because a notorious figure or regime shared it.
- [Ad lapidem](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ad-lapidem.md): Declaring a claim absurd without giving any reason why.
- [Appeal to emotion](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/appeal-emotion.md): Using feeling as the main support for a conclusion instead of reasons.
- [Appeal to fear](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/fear.md): Driving acceptance by raising alarm rather than by showing the claim is true.
- [Appeal to pity](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/pity.md): Substituting sympathy for the person in place of support for the claim.
- [Appeal to force](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/force.md): Replacing an argument with a threat of harm or loss.
- [Appeal to flattery](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/flattery.md): Using praise to secure agreement rather than giving reasons.
- [Appeal to spite](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/spite.md): Exploiting resentment toward someone as a reason to reject their position.
- [Wishful thinking](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/wishful-thinking.md): Believing something because the alternative is unbearable.
- [Appeal to consequences](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/consequences.md): Judging a claim true or false by whether its implications are pleasant.
- [Straw man](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/straw-man.md): Replacing an opponent's position with a weaker version and refuting that instead.
- [Red herring](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/red-herring.md): Introducing a side issue that draws attention away from the question at hand.
- [Loaded question](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/loaded-question.md): Asking a question that smuggles in an unproven assumption, so any direct answer concedes it.
- [Gish gallop](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/gish-gallop.md): Burying the other side under many weak claims at once so none can be answered properly.
- [Kettle logic](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/kettle-logic.md): Piling up defences that contradict each other, each undermining the others.
- [Motte and bailey](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/motte-bailey.md): Advancing a strong controversial claim, then retreating to a modest one when challenged.
- [Moving the goalposts](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/moving-goalposts.md): Demanding new evidence once the original demand has been met.
- [Special pleading](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/special-pleading.md): Claiming an exemption from a rule without giving a principled reason for the exemption.
- [Whataboutism](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/whataboutism.md): Answering a criticism by pointing at someone else's failing instead of addressing it.
- [False equivalence](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-equivalence.md): Treating two cases as comparable when they differ enormously in scale or kind.
- [Style over substance](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/style-over-substance.md): Letting the polish of a presentation stand in for the quality of its content.
- [Ad hoc rescue](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ad-hoc-rescue.md): Adding an unsupported excuse after the fact to save a claim that failed.
- [Unfalsifiability](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/unfalsifiability.md): Framing a claim so that no possible observation could count against it.
- [Affirming the consequent](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/affirming-consequent.md): From if A then B, and B is true, wrongly concluding A. Other causes of B are ignored.
- [Denying the antecedent](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/denying-antecedent.md): From if A then B, and A is false, wrongly concluding B is false. A may not be the only route to B.
- [Circular reasoning](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/circular.md): Assuming in the premises the very thing the argument is supposed to establish.
- [Equivocation](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/equivocation.md): Using one word in two different senses within the same argument.
- [Definist fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/definist.md): Defining a contested term in a way that settles the dispute by wording alone.
- [Reification](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/reification.md): Treating an abstraction as if it were a concrete agent that can act or want.
- [Undistributed middle](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/undistributed-middle.md): Concluding that two things are the same because they share one property.
- [Illicit major](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/illicit-major.md): Drawing a conclusion about all of a category from a premise that covered only part of it.
- [Fallacy of four terms](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/four-terms.md): A syllogism that looks valid but uses four terms because one word shifted meaning.
- [Existential fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/existential.md): Concluding that something exists from premises that only describe a category conditionally.
- [Affirming a disjunct](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/affirming-disjunct.md): Assuming that because one option in an or statement is true, the other must be false.
- [Masked man fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/masked-man.md): Substituting identical things inside a statement about belief or knowledge, where it does not hold.
- [Amphiboly](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/amphiboly.md): Drawing a conclusion from a sentence whose grammar allows more than one reading.
- [Fallacy of accent](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/accent.md): Changing the meaning of a statement by where the stress or emphasis falls.
- [False dilemma](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-dilemma.md): Presenting two options as the only ones when more exist.
- [Slippery slope](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/slippery-slope.md): Claiming one small step must lead to an extreme outcome, without defending the links.
- [Middle ground](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/middle-ground.md): Assuming the truth must lie halfway between two positions.
- [Continuum fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/continuum.md): Denying a real distinction because no exact boundary can be drawn between its ends.
- [Nirvana fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/nirvana.md): Rejecting a workable option because it falls short of an ideal that is not available.
- [Post hoc ergo propter hoc](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/post-hoc.md): Treating sequence as causation, so whatever came first is taken to have caused what followed.
- [Correlation implies causation](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/correlation-causation.md): Reading a statistical association as proof that one variable drives the other.
- [Regression fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/regression.md): Crediting an intervention for an improvement that was a return to normal after an extreme.
- [Gambler's fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/gamblers.md): Believing that independent events correct themselves, so a run makes the opposite due.
- [Fallacy of the single cause](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/single-cause.md): Reducing an outcome with many contributing causes to just one.
- [Hindsight bias](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/hindsight.md): Treating an outcome as having been obvious once you know it happened.
- [Historian's fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/historians.md): Judging past decisions by information that only became available later.
- [Fallacy of composition](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/composition.md): Inferring that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole they form.
- [Fallacy of division](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/division.md): Inferring that what is true of the whole must be true of each of its parts.
- [Ecological fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ecological.md): Drawing a conclusion about an individual from statistics about the group they belong to.
- [Fallacy of accident](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/accident.md): Applying a general rule to a case that its rationale was never meant to cover.
- [Hasty generalization](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/hasty-generalization.md): Generalizing from a sample too small or too narrow to support the conclusion.
- [Anecdotal evidence](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/anecdotal.md): Preferring a vivid personal story over systematic data.
- [Cherry picking](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/cherry-picking.md): Presenting only the data that supports a position while leaving out the rest.
- [Survivorship bias](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/survivorship.md): Studying only the cases that made it through, so the failures never enter the sample.
- [Texas sharpshooter](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/texas-sharpshooter.md): Drawing the target around the hits, so a pattern is defined after the data is seen.
- [Base rate neglect](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/base-rate.md): Reading a test result or signal without accounting for how rare the underlying condition is.
- [Conjunction fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/conjunction.md): Judging a detailed, specific scenario as more likely than the broader one that contains it.
- [Argument from silence](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/argument-from-silence.md): Treating the absence of a record as proof that the event did not occur.
- [Slothful induction](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/slothful-induction.md): Refusing the conclusion that a strong body of evidence points to.
- [Appeal to ignorance](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/appeal-ignorance.md): Taking the lack of disproof as proof, or the lack of proof as disproof.
- [Shifting the burden of proof](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/burden-shift.md): Requiring the other side to disprove a claim that was asserted without support.
- [Argument from incredulity](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/incredulity.md): Concluding that something is false because you cannot imagine how it could be true.
- [Is-ought fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/is-ought.md): Deriving a claim about what should be from a claim about what is.
- [Appeal to nature](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/appeal-nature.md): Treating natural as a synonym for good, safe, or right.
- [No true Scotsman](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/no-true-scotsman.md): Redefining a category mid-argument to exclude any counterexample.
- [False analogy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-analogy.md): Transferring a conclusion between two cases that differ in the respect that matters.
- [Sunk cost fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/sunk-cost.md): Letting money or effort already spent justify continuing, when only future returns matter.
- [Fallacy fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/fallacy-fallacy.md): Concluding a claim is false because the argument given for it was flawed.
- [Moralistic fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/moralistic.md): Concluding that something is not the case because it ought not to be.
- [Just-world fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/just-world.md): Assuming outcomes are deserved, so misfortune implies fault.
- [Two wrongs make a right](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/two-wrongs.md): Justifying a wrong by pointing to a comparable wrong done by someone else.
- [Etymological fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/etymological.md): Insisting a word's original meaning is its correct meaning today.
- [Chronological snobbery](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/chronological-snobbery.md): Rejecting an idea because it belongs to an earlier era.
- [Package deal fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/package-deal.md): Treating separable positions as a bundle that must be accepted or rejected together.