Merriam-Webster Logo
SINCE 1828
Menu
dictionary thesaurus

sophist

noun
soph·​ist | \ ˈsä-fist \

Definition of sophist

1 : philosopher
2 capitalized : any of a class of ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric, philosophy, and the art of successful living prominent about the middle of the fifth century b.c. for their adroit subtle and allegedly often specious reasoning
3 : a captious or fallacious reasoner

Examples of sophist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

 Unlike tiresome sophists, Mr. Epstein doesn’t dogmatically define his terms. — Thomas Vinciguerra, WSJ, "‘Charm’ Review: The Most Pleasing Personality," 11 Oct. 2018 So why, then, should liberal publications go out of their way to hire polite sophists with boring, bankrupt ideas (i.e. Brett Stephens), or stylish trolls with cruel ones (i.e. Kevin Williamson)? — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "The Liberal Media Can Have Ideological Diversity Without Conservatives," 6 May 2018 Conservative sophists lined up behind this strategy, insisting the Republican method was a completely normal negotiation. — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Why Trump Is Using Hostage Tactics on Family Separation," 18 June 2018 In Plato’s most famous dialogue, the Republic, Socrates falls into conversation with the bold and intimidating Thrasymachus, who is a sophist—that is, one who offers instructions on how to argue a case, no matter its merit. — Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, WSJ, "Truth Isn’t the Problem—We Are," 15 Mar. 2018 Whether a sophist like Milo Yiannopoulos may speak at a public university like Berkeley is less a question of what the law is than of what the law should be. — Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, "How Social-Media Trolls Turned U.C. Berkeley Into a Free-Speech Circus," 23 May 2016 Not even the most shameless sophist will argue that anything like that happened. — Hugh Hewitt, The Denver Post, "The U.S. Constitution isn’t a restaurant menu," 10 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sophist.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

See More

First Known Use of sophist

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

History and Etymology for sophist

Latin sophista, from Greek sophistēs, literally, expert, wise man, from sophizesthai to become wise, deceive, from sophos clever, wise

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about sophist

Dictionary Entries near sophist

sophic

sophiology

sophism

sophist

sophister

sophistic

sophisticate

Statistics for sophist

Last Updated

14 Jan 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for sophist

The first known use of sophist was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century

More from Merriam-Webster on sophist

Britannica English: Translation of sophist for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about sophist

Comments on sophist

What made you want to look up sophist? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

Show Comments  Hide Comments 

WORD OF THE DAY

substantive

important, real, or meaningful

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Test Your Vocabulary

Homophone Quiz

  • three-bears-two-of-them-look-like-theyre-whispering-to-a-third-bear-who-looks-chuffed-to-be-the-center-of-attention
  • In order to judge how people felt, the senator's office hired a firm to take a ______.
Spell It

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ
SCRABBLE® Sprint

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Words at Play

Ask the Editors

Word Games