sophisticate
Americannoun
adjective
verb (used with object)
-
sophisticates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sophisticated,
past participle, past
-
sophisticating
present participle
-
to make less natural, simple, or ingenuous; make worldly-wise.
-
to alter; pervert.
to sophisticate a meaning beyond recognition.
verb (used without object)
-
sophisticates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sophisticated,
past participle, past
-
sophisticating
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to make (someone) less natural or innocent, as by education
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to pervert or corrupt (an argument, etc) by sophistry
-
(tr) to make more complex or refined
-
rare to falsify (a text, etc) by alterations
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sophisticatesimple
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sophisticatessimple
-
have sophisticatedperfect
-
has sophisticatedperfect
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am sophisticatingprogressive
-
are sophisticatingprogressive
-
is sophisticatingprogressive
-
have been sophisticatingperfect progressive
-
has been sophisticatingperfect progressive
Past
-
sophisticatedsimple
-
had sophisticatedperfect
-
was sophisticatingprogressive
-
were sophisticatingprogressive
-
had been sophisticatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sophisticate
1350–1400; Middle English (adj. and v.) < Medieval Latin sophisticātus (past participle of sophisticāre to tamper with, disguise, trick with words), equivalent to Latin sophistic ( us ) ( see sophistic) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To sophisticate is to make someone or something less innocent. A sophisticate is also a worldly, cultured person. The root soph in sophisticate has to do with knowledge, and if a person gets sophisticated, they learn new things, especially about the social world. Parents sophisticate their children by teaching them table manners. Going to college sophisticates many people by exposing them to new ideas and other cultures. After becoming sophisticated, people are less natural and innocent, but more cultured. A sophisticate is also a worldly person. Sophisticates do things like go to the opera and drink fine wine.
Vocabulary lists containing sophisticate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As anchored as he is to Beirut, she is a transnationally minded sophisticate who is in a major hurry to move to Germany.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Those who know Lee only as his Gi-hun character would barely recognize the dapper sophisticate sitting with excellent posture in a small greenroom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2022
As Burrows told the New York Times in 1983, the trio “wanted to create a show around a Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy-type relationship” between a sophisticate and an average Joe.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2020
But early on, the transplanted Frenchman was more showman than sophisticate.
From Washington Post ● May 4, 2020
He is a sophisticate, a weekend denizen of New York’s theater district, a clotheshorse.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
With its expressionistic, skillfully lit pastels, “My Father’s Dragon” appears, at first, to be a high-tier cartoon for young sophisticates, as one might expect from the Oscar nominee Nora Twomey, who previously directed “The Breadwinner.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2022
Quirky sophisticates know a restaurant's specialties, including the choices that aren't listed on the menu.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2022
Her first novel, “The Clasp,” centered on similar themes, acted out by a set of 20-something sophisticates.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 9, 2022
They moved to a small town, but they thought of themselves as cultural sophisticates, intelligent and liberal.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2020
We stood out among these city sophisticates in their sturdy lace-up shoes or good-looking pumps.
From "I Will Always Write Back" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
The company is racing to build ever-more sophisticated AI models while attracting new business and consumer users of its tools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
The fungus infects plants through a sophisticated biological strategy.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026
They told us while they have the skills and experience to tackle vehicle crime, they are overstretched, under-resourced and struggling to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
"We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices" and "referred the matter to the FBI," OpenAI told AFP in a statement.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
Only a sophisticated religious or ideological system could sustain such efforts.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Byron and Shelley were always sophisticating about their verses; Keats sophisticated about nothing.
From Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century by George Paston
But the time is short; there is none to waste on idle questionings, none to spend on sophisticating conscience—time only for deciding as conscience bids.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St John, Vol. II by Marcus Dods
In these aspects, at least, our shores are still primitive; they still know the primal force of wind and waves: there is no sophisticating, no taming of these.
From The Cornwall Coast by Arthur L. (Arthur Leslie) Salmon
Nothing comes to him, not spoiled by the sophisticating medium of moral uses.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb
It does so partly by sophisticating it—the sensibility to right and wrong being weakened by every evil act, as a cold in the head takes away the sense of smell.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah by Alexander Maclaren
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