Ad Hominem Definition

hŏmə-nĕm, -nəm
adjective
Attacking a person's character or motivations rather than a position or argument.
Debaters should avoid ad hominem arguments that question their opponents' motives.
American Heritage
Appealing to prejudice and emotion rather than to reason.
Webster's New World
Appealing to the emotions rather than to logic or reason.
American Heritage
Attacking the character, motives, etc. of an opponent rather than debating the issue on logical grounds.
Webster's New World
To the person. Appealing to personal prejudices instead of reason; attacking one’s character rather than his arguments.
Webster's New World Law
noun

A fallacious objection to an argument or factual claim by appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim; an attempt to argue against an opponent's idea by discrediting the opponent himself.

Wiktionary
A personal attack.
Wiktionary
adverb
In an ad hominem manner.
He tried to make his case by arguing ad hominem.
Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Ad Hominem

Noun

Singular:
ad hominem
Plural:
ad-hominems

Origin of Ad Hominem

  • Shortened from the Latin expression argumentum ad hominem, argument at the person. From argumentum (meaning "argument") + ad (meaning "to" or "at") + hominem, the accusative singular of homo (meaning "man"). It can also mean attacking the messenger.

    From Wiktionary

  • Latin ad to hominem accusative of homō man

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to ad hominem using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

Words Ending With

Unscrambles

ad hominem