sophomore

American  

[sof-uh-mawr, -mohr, sof-mawr, -mohr] / ˈsɒf əˌmɔr, -ˌmoʊr, ˈsɒf mɔr, -moʊr /

noun

sophomores plural

1. a student in the second year of high school or college.

2. a person or group in the second year of any endeavor.

   He's a sophomore on Wall Street.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a sophomore.

2. of or being a second effort or second version.

   Their sophomore album was even better than their first.

sophomore British  

/ ˈsɒfəˌmɔː /

noun

1. a second-year student at a secondary (high) school or college

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adjective

1. (of a book, recording, etc by an artist) second

   her sophomore album

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• presophomore
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sophomores
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sophomore

1645–55; earlier sophumer, probably equivalent to sophum sophism + -er ¹

Explanation

A sophomore is in their second year, either in high school or college. Once you became a sophomore, thinking you now knew everything, you pitied the freshmen for their confusion over how to write college papers. Sophomore comes from the word sophism which means "a bad argument that's clever but false," and that's sometimes how sophomores in college act. They're not bright-eyed newcomers anymore, and think they know a lot, but really they've much to learn. We also use the word for other seconds: a band's second album is usually called their sophomore album.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sophomore sophomores

In my sophomore year, I directed my first play—“Story Theatre,” by Paul Sills.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

As a director, Wilde lands this jump with gleeful ease, making it clear what she meant when she recently described the dreadful reaction to her sophomore film, “Don’t Worry Darling,” as “liberating.”

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

Gauri Kshettry, a rising sophomore at Princeton who founded Strata, an AI tool to streamline industrial reports, still sees education as a necessity for intellectual growth and as a safety net.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

He set a record at Baylor during his sophomore year with 642 points during the 2025-26 season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

Maybe I still wasn’t great at talking to Elle, but I had come a long way since that sophomore dance.

From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan

Fortunately, my English teacher, Thomas Dolan, suggested I join Stuyvesant’s SING!, in which freshmen and sophomores competed against juniors and seniors in original productions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

So are more college freshmen and sophomores, in the hopes of improving their own hiring chances later on, campus career counselors say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026

Benett Pace hit a home run and sophomores Jason Taylor and Zane Scott each delivered two-run singles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026

Many of the players who were sophomores on the 2024 team are coming through this season, led by pitcher/infielder Jayden Rojas, who’s 2-0 on the mound and hitting .385.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026

The Post-Intelligencer’s Royal Brougham had been loudly backing the cause of the sophomores for months, despite their recent sloppiness.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• graduate student
• learner
• senior
• student
• undergraduate