When we’re growing up and doing math, we learn that both sides of the equal sign have to be identical. One side says “4.” The other says “2 + 2.” Neither side says the exact same thing, but both sides are saying the same thing since 2 + 2 is indeed equal to 4. That is the only way you can have an equal sign there.
This doesn’t just apply in math. It applies everywhere else in life. You cannot say legitimately that two things are the same if they are not the same. The equivocation fallacy however does that. It takes a term to mean the same thing when it’s used in two different ways and really doesn’t have the same meaning.
