sophist

American  

[sof-ist] / ˈsɒf ɪst /

noun

1. (often initial capital letter)

   1. any of a class of professional teachers in ancient Greece who gave instruction in various fields, as in general culture, rhetoric, politics, or disputation.

   2. a person belonging to this class at a later period who, while professing to teach skill in reasoning, concerned himself with ingenuity and specious effectiveness rather than soundness of argument.

2. a person who reasons adroitly and speciously rather than soundly.

3. a philosopher.

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sophist British  

/ ˈsɒfɪst /

noun

1. (often capital) one of the pre-Socratic philosophers who were itinerant professional teachers of oratory and argument and who were prepared to enter into debate on any matter however specious

2. a person who uses clever or quibbling arguments that are fundamentally unsound

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Other Word Forms

• antisophist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of sophist

1535–45; < Latin sophista < Greek sophistḗs sage, derivative of sophízesthai

Explanation

A sophist is someone who makes good points about an issue — until you realize those points aren't entirely true, like a political candidate who twists an opponent's words or gives misleading facts during a speech. Sophist has the accent on the first syllable: "SAW fist." It comes from the Greek word sophizesthai, meaning "to become wise or learned, deceive." In fact, deceit was just part of the job for the ancient Greek philosophers called Sophists. The cleverness of the Sophists prevented students from seeing that the Sophists' arguments didn't reach logical conclusions — and the Sophists kept their paying students coming back for more.

Example Sentences

While Herodotus suggests the workings of fate in the earlier Persian Wars by reporting multiple opinions, Thucydides, likely influenced by Sophist philosophy, stages Athens’s inner conflict during the Peloponnesian War through imaginary dialogues.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

One of the dialogues features a young man named Meno who is the pupil of a prominent Sophist.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

Whereas the philosopher sought the truth in a dispassionate way using reason as a guide, the Sophist addressing a crowd was indifferent to truth, seeking power and influence by appealing to the audience’s emotions.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

In his satiric play, The Clouds, Aristophanes pictured Socrates as a ragged leader of the rabble, a Sophist, "a thoroughly subversive influence."

From Time Magazine Archive

But who is this man? is he a Sophist? for by that name were those men called, who used to philosophize for the sake of display or of profit.

From The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by Cicero by Yonge, Charles Duke

Related Words

• bigot
• charlatan
• crook
• impostor
• phony
• trickster