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View synonyms for sophist
sophist
[ sof-ist ]
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.
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
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Other Words From
- anti·sophist noun adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of sophist1
1535–45; < Latin sophista < Greek sophistḗs sage, derivative of sophízesthai
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Word History and Origins
Origin of sophist1
C16: from Latin sophista, from Greek sophistēs a wise man, from sophizesthai to act craftily
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Example Sentences
If his Ethicist gig ever winds up feeling too constricting, he can always launch a column called The Sophist.
From The Daily Beast
He traces the Sophist by descending subdivision from the acquisitive genus of art.
From Project Gutenberg
The Sophist is a hunter of walking animals: which may be divided into two classes, wild and tame.
From Project Gutenberg
Again, we may find the Sophist by descending through a different string of subordinate classes from the genus — Acquisitive Art.
From Project Gutenberg
The application of this Elenchus is the work of the Sophist, looked at on its best side.
From Project Gutenberg
The Sophist is traced down, from the genus of separating or discriminating art.
From Project Gutenberg
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