sophomore
Americannoun
-
a student in the second year of high school or college.
-
a person or group in the second year of any endeavor.
He's a sophomore on Wall Street.
adjective
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of or relating to a sophomore.
-
of or being a second effort or second version.
Their sophomore album was even better than their first.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Vocabulary lists containing sophomore
Made You Look: Synonyms for "Immature"
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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:
CHAMINADE: There’s speed and size surrounding sophomore quarterback Jeremy Mellalieu.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The perreo heartthrob is also tapping into new genres for his upcoming sophomore album.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 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
Leïa Ryan just finished her sophomore year at Yale and helped create the Yale Hacker House.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
O High was his third high school in Oakland, plus he’d spent sophomore year living in a group home in Redding, California, three and a half hours away.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
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
Since 2023 it has featured 28 players — seven G League players along with 21 rookies and sophomores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026
And of those who do stay, only a handful were still waiting to start as sophomores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2025
Reggie, in a shirt and tie, standing next to a metal folding chair, shouted defensive instructions to five scrawny-armed sophomores of the Bear River Bears, Reggie’s former high school team.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
