sophistication
Americannoun
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sophistications
plural
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sophisticated character, ideas, tastes, or ways as the result of education, worldly experience, etc..
the sophistication of the wealthy.
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change from the natural character or simplicity, or the resulting condition.
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complexity, as in design or organization.
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impairment or debasement, as of purity or genuineness.
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the use of sophistry; a sophism, quibble, or fallacious argument.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sophistication
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Medieval Latin sophisticātiōn-, stem of sophisticātiō; equivalent to sophisticate + -ion
Explanation
Sophistication is the quality that belongs to a person who appears wise and glamorous. Sipping tea and appreciating opera are both stereotypical signs of sophistication. The noun sophistication can also be used in a slightly different way, to describe a deep understanding, or an almost enlightened state. Before the 1800s, sophistication meant "the use of sophistry," or using mistaken or deceitful arguments, although the root word for both sophistication and "sophistry" is the Greek sophistes, or "wise man."
Vocabulary lists containing sophistication
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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I Was Their American Dream
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Content Summary 4.7: Early Modern Western Society and Culture
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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:
Estevez later raved about Xiao’s sophistication, telling others it was like talking to Dario Amodei, the co-founder of groundbreaking AI company Anthropic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
His instincts are impeccable, but he's yet to acquire the sophistication of Ian Fleming's character, much less a licence to kill.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
In other words, retail investors lack the size and sophistication of institutional investors and are likely to trade more frequently, chasing the next big trends without paying close attention to valuations.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
However, the scale and sophistication of the passageway discovered under the Buy 4 Less was particularly notable, prosecutors said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
Obinze’s mother, her beautiful face, her air of sophistication, her wearing a white apron in the kitchen, was not like any other mother Ifemelu knew.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“It is as if she had returned from some noble-nonsense war movie of the 1940’s to suggest an area of human response that the masterly sophistications of ‘M.A.S.H.’ are unaware of.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2022
“It was so long that its sophistications were less visible,” she said, laughing, and added that she initially resisted suggested cuts.
From New York Times ● Feb. 19, 2012
Munich: 396 icons, barbaric gemstones strewn across the velvet sophistications of Orthodox theology.
From Time Magazine Archive
Another 500 years later, with Tennyson's pious allegories, Mark Twain's farce, John Erskine's sophistications, etc.,
From Time Magazine Archive
Who would want to have anything to do with grown-up people, with their larger selfishnesses, more developed self-seeking—robust jealousies and full-grown exactions and sophistications, when they had a beautiful little one like that?
From The First Violin A Novel by Jessie Fothergill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
