sophisticate
Americannoun
adjective
verb (used with object)
-
sophisticates,
present (3rd person singular)
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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
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have sophisticatedperfect
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has sophisticatedperfect
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am sophisticatingprogressive
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are sophisticatingprogressive
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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:
He was an everyday guy who had fallen in love, not a highbrow sophisticate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
The late British author was a sophisticate with an eye for irony, influenced in large part by Monty Python’s random absurdities, P.G.
From Slate ● Nov. 7, 2023
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
I was, unconvincingly, so many people as a teenager — a rebel, a sophisticate, a drama nerd, a go-getter, a witch.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2021
He is a sophisticate, a weekend denizen of New York’s theater district, a clotheshorse.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
There’s no quiz show in “Age of Vice,” but there is a poor boy who slides through a backdoor into a demimonde of degraded sophisticates.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
But her honest voice and honest cooking caused Manhattan and Brooklyn sophisticates to clamor for her beautifully prepared Southern food.
From Salon ● May 25, 2022
Dressing up each time helps relieve the stress of having to put her business on hold during the lockdown, she said, and is also just the natural state of the city’s fashion-conscious sophisticates.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2022
They moved to a small town, but they thought of themselves as cultural sophisticates, intelligent and liberal.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2020
Three years among the sophisticates of Girton had not provided her with the courage to confront him.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Muriel Spark, best remembered for her sophisticated and witty fiction, tried her hand at verse-writing with a series of poems about Bluebell the kitten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 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
Mutual funds have historically charged much lower fees than private funds reserved for sophisticated investors.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
“Yes, I can see well enough,” I managed in the French that still tasted new on my tongue, and then tried to figure out what else a competent, sophisticated girl might say in response.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Next is a woe on those who play fast and loose with plain morality, sophisticating conscience, and sapping the foundations of law.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah by Alexander Maclaren
These were coached, in the usual masterly manner, sophisticating and perverting truth.
From Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked by C. H. Thomas
We can in part; but our Lord has taught us in this prayer that it is not to be done by denying or sophisticating facts.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII by Alexander Maclaren
Sophisticā′tion, act of sophisticating, adulterating, or injuring by mixture; Sophis′ticātor, one who sophisticates or adulterates; Sophis′ticism, the philosophy or the methods of the sophists; Soph′istress, a she-sophist; Soph′istry, specious but fallacious reasoning.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
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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