Word of the Day

: June 27, 2014

sophomoric

adjective sahf-MOR-ik

What It Means

1 : conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature

2 : of, relating to, or characteristic of a sophomore

sophomoric in Context

Judd's behavior at the party was sophomoric, but I've seen a more mature side to him in other settings.

"[T]his central character that I ended up playing … is a guy who's had his feelings hurt. He elects to try to fix his problem by crashing a kids' spelling bee. That has some relevance in his revenge scenario.… His execution of that, though, is pretty sophomoric…." - Jason Bateman, National Public Radio, March 17, 2014

Did You Know?

Sophomores get a bad rap. A lot of people seem to think they're foolish (no matter what they do), when they know they're pretty wise. The history of the words "sophomore" and "sophomoric" (which developed from "sophomore") proves that it has always been tough to be a sophomore. Those words probably come from a combination of the Greek terms "sophos" (which means "wise") and "mōros" (which means "foolish"). But sophomores can take comfort in the fact that some very impressive words, including "philosopher" and "sophisticated," are also related to "sophos."