Word.ws English Dictionary

Gish gallop

Gish gallop noun: a rhetorical technique in which a dishonest speaker lists a string of falsehoods or misleading items so that their opponent will be unable to counter each one and still be able to make their own counterpoints.

Noun

Gish gallop (plural Gish gallops)

  1. A rhetorical technique in which a dishonest speaker lists a string of falsehoods or misleading items so that their opponent will be unable to counter each one and still be able to make their own counterpoints.

Forms of Gish gallop

pluralGish gallops

Origin of Gish gallop

Coined by American physical anthropologist Eugenie C. Scott in 1994, referencing a rhetorical strategy often employed by creationist Duane Gish in debates about evolution.

Questions about Gish gallop

What does Gish gallop mean?
Gish gallop means a rhetorical technique in which a dishonest speaker lists a string of falsehoods or misleading items so that their opponent will be unable to counter each one and still be able to make their own counterpoints.
What part of speech is Gish gallop?
Gish gallop is a noun.
What is the plural of Gish gallop?
The plural of Gish gallop is Gish gallops.

Words near Gish gallop in the dictionary

  1. gised
  2. Giselle
  3. Gisenyi
  4. gises
  5. gish
  6. Gish gallop
  7. Gish gallops
  8. gished
  9. gishes
  10. Gishford
  11. Gishfords

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Gish gallop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Gish gallop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gish_gallop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.