These two verbs both describe ways of speaking.
To prevaricate means “to lie” with words—not in any other way.
Equivocate means something quite different, but is also associated with deception.
Equivocate means “to voice things equally”—to speak in a way that treats two different things as if they were the same thing, or to speak in a way that does not recognize the difference between things.
People often equivocate in order to win arguments in a deceptive way. Here are some examples of people equivocating:
You cannot say I am incorrect because it is just my opinion.
Evolution and creationism should be taught equally because they are both theories.
These are typical examples of deceptive equivocation. In the first statement, although it is true that opinions are neither correct nor incorrect, not all statements or beliefs are opinions—this mistake is what is known as a logical fallacy. In the second example, creationism and evolution are being equivocated as “theories” although creationism is not a “theory,” in the academic sense of the word.
And as mentioned above, prevaricate simply means “to lie with words.” Not much to add here, but you can check out examples of its use in a sentence below.
More Examples of How to Use "Equivocate" in a Sentence
- The witness seemed to equivocate the facts during interrogation, which only increased the detective's suspicion further.
- Whenever we ask Jane out, she equivocates regarding her plans, which always seem either too convenient or just outlandish.
- When the police came to investigate, Mona didn’t cooperate and was suspected of equivocating the details of the incident.
- If you keep equivocating like this, no one will trust you even again.
- You should just spit out the truth instead of equivocating about the issue.
- Cynthia has a habit of equivocating; that's why nobody believes anything she says.
More Examples of How to Use "Prevaricate" in a Sentence
- Instead of confessing his love, he chose to prevaricate and lost her.
- Ron was plainly guilty, yet he prevaricated right in front of me, like it was nothing.
- There is no use in confronting Mark again, as he will do nothing but prevaricate until you give up.
- Lucas was terrified, and ended up prevaricating to his Dad about his grades, hoping to buy some time while he worked on his missing assignments.
- If you don’t love her anymore, stop prevaricating and tell her the truth about your feelings.