conflate

Conflate is a transitive verb meaning to fuse or merge two or more elements into a single entity, often in a way that obscures differences between them. It can also mean to mistake one thing for another or to treat distinct items as the same.

The term originates from Latin conflare, meaning “to blow together,” formed with com- “together” and flare “to blow.” It entered English through Old French and early modern usage, acquiring its current sense of merging or confusing distinct things.

In academic, journalistic, and everyday language, conflation describes an error in which separate concepts, events, or sources are treated as one. This can lead to biased conclusions, overgeneralization, or misrepresentation. Distinguishing conflation from legitimate synthesis or integration is important in critical analysis and argumentation.

Common examples include conflating correlation with causation, or conflating a policy’s intent with its outcomes. In data work, conflating records from different datasets can create duplicates or mislabels; data cleaning and deduplication aim to prevent conflation. In rhetoric, conflation can also occur when terms with overlapping but distinct meanings are used interchangeably, diminishing precision.

Conflation is a term frequently encountered in discussions of media literacy, research methodology, and information management. The noun form is conflation, and the related adjectives are conflated or conflating.