Loaded Language

The Fallacy Files does a great job of explaining this fallacy, so I will paraphrase their entry with my own example.

Loaded words carry an evaluative meaning along with a descriptive meaning.

A word that only has a descriptive meaning is fairly value neutral; it expresses no judgment in favor or against the object or entity it describes.

A loaded word, however, carries a value judgment along with its descriptive element.

So the word "car" would be a descriptive word, while "jalopy" would be a loaded word.

Loaded words are not always fallacies (sometimes people do drive jalopies), but they become fallacies when used imprecisely to sway a listener a certain way.

This is an easy fallacy to miss, because value judgments are not entirely objective. One man's jalopy may be another's dream car, so determining whether or not a fallacy is in play can be difficult.

Nonetheless, the context in which the loaded word is used can help determine whether or not the writer uses a fallacy. If a young man is begging his parents for a new car and refers to his well-running sub 100,000 mile '99 Accord as a jalopy, he is using loaded language in a manipulative way.

For a further examination of loaded words, see The Fallacy Files entry.