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:
“Your trustee needs to have some financial literacy and sophistication, and you must actually trust them. You will also need successor trustees,” said David Haas, a certified financial planner and owner of Cereus Financial Advisors.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Given the sophistication of contemporary TV coverage, “it’s almost preferable to stay home and watch your favorite games on the big screen hanging on your den wall,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 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
He sometimes took the train to Manhattan with a different set of friends to shop for music and clothes—an unheard-of level of sophistication in our world.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
“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
The trouble is that we have not yet attained several sophistications that are necessary for its successful operation.
From Time Magazine Archive
These differ greatly in their habits and myths, but some salient common traits emerge which cast light on the spontaneous workings of the human mind when unaffected by the sophistications of a highly elaborate civilization.
From The Mind in the Making The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform by James Harvey Robinson
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.
