For example, "A feather is light. What is light cannot be dark. So a feather can not be dark," commits this fallacy: The word light is used in the sense of having little weight the first time, but of having a bright colour the second time.
The fallacy of equivocation is often used with words that have a strong emotional content and many meanings. These meanings often coincide within proper context, but the fallacious arguer does a semantic shift, slowly changing the context as he goes in such a way to achieve equivocation by equating distinct meanings of the word.
Equivocation is closely linked with the fallacy of amphiboly, where amphiboly relies on a syntantic shift.