Ad hominem is a form of rhetorical attack directed at the competitor’s character, instead of their argument.
The term comes from Latin and means “to the person”.
The use of Ad hominem attacks relies on a logical fallacy that if the character is corrupt, the arguments are also irrelevant, and the position, therefore, should be rejected.
The Ad hominem attack stigmatizes the utterer in an attempt to make any of their claims, statements, predicaments, and arguments untenable, not based on their contents but due to the character of the one who is saying them.