Identify the fallacy committed in the argument: 'An elephant is an animal; therefore, a small elephant is a small animal.'

The word small shifts its meaning between small elephant and small animal, giving equivocation.

A small elephant is small only relative to elephants, yet it remains a very large animal.

The argument treats small as if it named one fixed size in both places.

This trade on two senses of the same term breaks the inference.

Reasoning that turns on such a shift of meaning is the fallacy of equivocation.