Go-red Sentence Examples

The phrase “red herring” comes from a 19th-century story about using the smell of a herring to distract dogs from chasing a rabbit. Today, the literary and rhetorical device called a red herring refers to distracting a reader or listener with a seemingly (but not actually) relevant argument. For example, a mystery author might strongly hint that a butler character is the killer, only to include a surprise ending with the wife as the culprit. In an argument, the red herring fallacy diverts a main argument by focusing on a detail and forming a new argument. Chances are, you hear examples of the red herring fallacy every day — and you might even use it yourself.

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