sophist

[ sof-ist ]

/ ˈsɒf ɪst /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sophist ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

(often initial capital letter) Greek History.

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

a person who reasons adroitly and speciously rather than soundly.

a philosopher.

Nearby words

sopher, sophi, sophia, sophie, sophism, sophist, sophister, sophistic, sophisticate, sophisticated, sophistication

Origin of sophist

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

Related forms

an·ti·soph·ist, noun, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sophist

If his Ethicist gig ever winds up feeling too constricting, he can always launch a column called The Sophist.
Forget the Wife Beating—Are You Ready for Some Football?|Steve Almond|September 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The one acts like a sophist, the other like a true man of genius.
Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. I (of 2)|Jaime Luciano Balmes
"And you did not even see him at his best," exclaimed Favorinus, the Gaul, the sophist and rhetorician.
The Emperor, Complete|Georg Ebers
We see that the man whose success is merely personal—the actor, the sophist, the millionaire, the aesthete—is incurably vulgar.
Soliloquies in England|George Santayana

In this context some discussions with Antiphon the sophist deserve record.
The Memorabilia|Xenophon
In the Sophist the same contradictions are pursued to a certain extent, but only with a view to their resolution.
Sophist|Plato

British Dictionary definitions for sophist

sophist

/ (ˈsɒfɪst) /

noun

(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

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

Word Origin for sophist

C16: from Latin sophista, from Greek sophistēs a wise man, from sophizesthai to act craftily

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012