Loaded words are words or phrases which have strong emotional overtones or connotations and which evoke strongly positive (or negative) reactions far beyond the specific meaning of the word which is listed in the dictionary.

A language construct, such as a word or a question, is said to be loaded if it carries meaning or implications beyond its strict definition (its denotation). Use of the phrase loaded language to describe the writing or speech of another implies an accusation of demagoguery, or of pandering to the audience. A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... For other uses, see Question (disambiguation). ... This word has distinct meanings in other fields: see denotation (semiotics) and connotation and denotation. ...

Some loaded language is used in ways that are deliberately ambiguous or even contradictory. Loaded language as an umbrella term is sometimes used to describe spin, euphemisms and doublespeak. Examples of loaded words, in alphabetical order, include: Look up ambiguity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The expression umbrella term means a word that provides a superset or grouping of related concepts. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces, or in the case of doublespeak to make it less troublesome for the speaker. ... Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. ...

• Anti-Semitism literally means discrimination against or a great dislike for those of Semitic origin (such as Arabs, Ethiopians, Aramaeans, Jews etc.). At the time of its invention as a word, in the late 1800s, it was intended to be used solely to describe hatred for the Jews alone. The ambiguity in the term is a result of later semantic subterfuge by anti-semitic opponents of its usage to apply solely to Jews, in a directed attempt to delegitimize the use of the word "antisemite" when applied to its practitioners.
• Christian Right, describes believers of Christianity that also subscribe to the ideologies of right-wing politics, but also implies a correctness in their thinking. Many types of conservatism, whether the brand is political, social and fiscal, aren't solely in agreement with the religious right.
• Clitoridectomy is a form of female circumcision and a form of female genital mutilation. However, female genital mutilation is a term used primarily by persons who do not approve of genital modification and mutilation of minors.
• Concentration camp is a term that literally just refers to a camp in which many people are "concentrated" in one area. There is nothing inherently evil about the term, but it is now seen as synonymous with the death camps of Nazi Germany.
• Democracy which used to have strong negative connotations (it was used as the word demagogy is used today) and now has strong positive connotations throughout the Western world (e.g. Europe and the United States). Many now consider anything "democratic" to be automatically "good" and anyone accused of being "anti-democratic" as automatically "bad". In western countries, other political ideologies fascism, totalitarianism and sometimes communism, are loaded words, with these ideologies held as morally repugnant due to their allegedly historically oppressive nature.
• Discrimination which means "to sort between," but which has now become so associated with prejudice and bias based on race, sex, sexuality, class, age, etc. that the word's original sense has become almost unusable (although it persists in some health care fields, in which one may speak of a "difficulty with object discrimination" i.e. telling between objects).
• Free will which in philosophy is often used to mean the opposite of determinism, but which instead suggests freedom from external coercion. Free will describes the power for an individual to decide on their own fate.
• Fundamentalism denotes those religious practices that advocate a strict and literal reading of sacred texts. Popularly, however, the term is sometimes applied to any nonmainstream group to imply guilt by association.
• Homophobia is sometimes considered to be a loaded term because the root phobia implies a fear while the dictionary definition implies disgust or aversion to homosexuals or aspects of homosexuality. Additionally, labeling someone a homophobe commonly evokes negative reactions from them.
• Non-sexist language, because it implies that failing to use "non-sexist language" is sexist. The language does not want to differentiate or defame men or women in ways held as offensive and discriminatory to their gender.
• Progressive and progress, that imply that opposite or different worldviews are reactionary, negative, evil or backward. Other terms are radical and innovative, but can mean the same for reactionary has their own radical or innovative political agenda.
• Pro-life and Pro-choice, because each implies that the other is anti- something, specifically that pro-life is anti-choice and that pro-choice is anti-life. Both issues are related to how society is divided on abortion.
• Propaganda, which literally refers to a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda, but which carries strong negative connotations of being deceptive. In the U.S. for example, Liberal and left-wing movements are accused of one-sided bias in their alleged dominance of the media by conservative and right-wing critics.
• Racist, produces controversial implications on whether or not the action, policy or behavior (racism) is directed against or discriminates one person or group, with open or subliminal forms of prejudice, because of their race, color, ethnicity and culture not like the majority, e.g. the white/European American majority in North America (Canada and the United States).

These terms seem to arise most often in politics where they serve the purpose of propaganda and the subject of great conflict between persons and groups of people on the difference of opinion comes from "loaded words". The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... For other uses, see Arab (disambiguation). ... The Arameans or Aramaeans (also called Syriacs) were a Semitic, nomadic people who dwelt in Aram-Naharaim or Aram of the two rivers, also known as Mesopotamia a region including modern Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Iran that is mentioned six times in the Hebrew Bible. ... The Christian right is a term collectively referring to a spectrum of right-wing Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their strong support of social values they deem in line with traditional Christian values in [[Western world by a wide range of commentators. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Left-Right politics. ... Conservatism is a political philosophy that usually favors traditional values and strong foreign defense. ... Clitoridectomy is the surgical removal of the clitoris. ... Genital modification and genital mutilation both can refer to permanent or temporary changes to the human genitals. ... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Majdanek - crematorium Extermination camp (German Vernichtungslager) was the term applied to a group of camps set up by Nazi Germany during World War II for the express purpose of killing the Jews of Europe, although members of some other groups whom the Nazis wished to exterminate, such as Roma (Gypsies... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Demagogy (from Greek demos, people, and agogos, leading) refers to a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, fears, and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalistic or populist themes. ... World map exhibiting the location of Europe. ... Fascism is a political ideology and mass movement that seeks to place the nation, defined in exclusive biological, cultural, and/or historical terms, above all other sources of loyalty, and to create a mobilized national community. ... Totalitarianism is a term employed by political scientists, especially those in the field of comparative politics, to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownershipmovement]]. Early forms of human social organization have been described as primitive communism by Marxists. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling Hate speech · Hate crime Lynching · Gay bashing Genocide · Holocaust Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing Pogrom · Race war Religious persecution Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism White/Black supremacy Hate groups · Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism Womens/Universal suffrage Civil rights · Gay rights Childrens rights · Youth rights Policies Discriminatory... Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ... Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. ... In comparative religion, fundamentalism has come to refer to several different understandings of religious thought and practice, through literal interpretation of religious texts such as the Bible or the Quran and sometimes also anti-modernist movements in various religions. ... Guilt by association, also known as the bad company fallacy or the company that you keep fallacy, is the logical fallacy of claiming that something must be false because of the people or organisations who support it. ... Homophobia is the fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Gender-neutral language (gender-generic, gender-inclusive, non-sexist, or sex-neutral language) is language that attempts to refer neither to males nor females when discussing an abstract or hypothetical person whose sex cannot otherwise be determined, as opposed to more traditional language forms, which may use male or female... In common usage, the word gender often refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... Progressivism is a term that refers to a broad school of contemporary international social and political philosophies. ... Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet, generally used as a pejorative, originally applied in the context of the French Revolution to counter-revolutionaries who wished to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime. ... The term Radical (latin radix meaning root) has been used since the late 18th century as a label in political science for those favoring or trying to produce thoroughgoing or extreme political reforms which can include changes to the social order to a greater or lesser extent. ... Innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved idea, good, service, process or practice that is intended to be useful. ... Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet, generally used as a pejorative, originally applied in the context of the French Revolution to counter-revolutionaries who wished to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime. ... Pro-life advocates make a silent complaint in front of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Pro-life is a term representing a variety of perspectives and activist movements in bioethics. ... {| class=wikitable header 1bi header 2at header 3ch row 1, cell 1ghdsghdg row 1, cell 2gdxhxdfhg row 1, cell 3 row 2, cell 1ghdghsg row 2, cell 3 Nations and Laws Abortion by country Conscience · Buffer zones Minors · Paternal rights Abortion case law: R v Davidson R. v. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One Propaganda is a type of message aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of people. ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Conservative may refer to: Conservatism, political philosophy A member of a Conservative Party Conservative extension, premise of deductive logic Conservativity theorem, mathematical proof of conservative extension Conservative Judaism britney spears Category: ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... 1. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Gay bashing Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Hate groups White/Black/Latino supremacy Radical Islam · Fundamentalism · Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage Childrens rights... This article may contain original research or unverified claims. ... This article concerns the term race as used in reference to human beings. ... Color is an important part of the visual arts. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... The term White American refers primarily to Americans of European descent residing in the United States. ... European American is a term for an American of European descent, who are usually referred as White or Caucasian. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One Propaganda is a type of message aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of people. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Questions, on the other hand, do not need to contain any "loaded words" to be considered loaded questions. They are usually said to be loaded if they make a presupposition. For example, the question "Do you still cheat on your taxes?" makes the presupposition that the subject of the question at one time did cheat on his/her taxes. Common examples of loaded questions arise in interviews where the interviewer wishes to make a biased statement while keeping a guise of unbiased journalism. In linguistics, a presupposition is background belief, relating to an utterance, that: must be mutually known or assumed by the speaker and addressee for the utterance to be considered appropriate in context Will generally remain a necessary assumption whether the utterance is placed in the form of an assertion, denial... Media bias is a term used to describe a real or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, in the selection of which events will be reported and how they are covered. ...

Avoiding loaded language where possible is essential for objectivity, as well the points of controversy, moral panics and social/emotional tension. Many people consider the very words in times obscene, profane or vulgar for producing a negative reaction in a public situation, and by social codes of etiquette and taboo, it's considered best to avoid these "loaded words" whenever/wherever possible out of comfort and respect. Objectivity is frequently held to be essential to journalistic professionalism (particularly in the United States); however, there is some disagreement about what the concept consists of. ... Look up Controversy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A moral panic is a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. ... Obscenity has several connotations. ... Profanity is a word choice or usage which many consider to be offensive. ... The term vulgar originally meant of the common people, from the Latin vulgus. ... Etiquette, also known as decorum, is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. ... Homosexuality is considered taboo in many cultures around the world. ...

See also

• Bias
• Code word
• Connotation
• Fallacy of many questions
• freedom of speech
• Journalism and Free press
• morality and ethics issues
• political correctness
• Power word
• Rhetorical device
• semantics
• Sophism
• Thought Reform (book)