sophomoric
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a sophomore or sophomores.
-
suggestive of or resembling the traditional sophomore; intellectually pretentious, overconfident, conceited, etc., but immature.
sophomoric questions.
- Synonyms:
- juvenile, adolescent, childish
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sophomoric
Explanation
Anything sophomoric is foolish and immature. It was totally sophomoric of your friends to throw our clothes into the swimming pool. It's acceptable to use this adjective to mean "characteristic of or relating to a sophomore," so you could describe your sophomoric extracurriculars in high school, like marching band and chess club. It's far more common, however, for sophomoric to be derogatory, appropriate for describing your younger sister's ridiculous practical jokes or the class clown's antic. This word derives from contrasting Greek roots, sophos, "wise," and mōros, "foolish and dull."
Vocabulary lists containing sophomoric
Inexperienced
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Martin Eden
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soph
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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.
Sophomoric is often used as a pejorative term, but I myself remember laughing pretty hard as a sophomore.
From Time Magazine Archive
I had my baptism of Sophomoric scorn and many a heated argument over my title to life, liberty and the pursuit of learning.
From Eben Holden, a tale of the north country by Bacheller, Irving
He found a man, I did not so easily recognize, that was Sophomoric at about the same period that he was and I experienced a bad quarter of an hour.
From Revisiting the Earth by Hill, James Langdon
Now Daniel Webster passed safely through all the stages of the "Sophomoric" disease of the mind, as he passed safely through the measles, the chicken-pox, and other eruptive maladies incident to childhood and youth.
From The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style by Webster, Daniel
The caller had left the studies of the Sophomoric year,—or rather his Scott, Byron, Burns, and the popular novelists of the day,—for the recruiting service in his native county.
From Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals As Seen From the Ranks During a Campaign in the Army of the Potomac by Armstrong, William H.
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.
