sophomoric

play

adjective soph·o·mor·ic \ˌsäf-ˈmȯr-ik, -ˈmär- also ˌsȯf- or ˌsä-fə- or ˌsȯ-fə-\

Definition of sophomoric

1 : conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature a sophomoric argument
2 : lacking in maturity, taste, or judgment sophomoric humor

See sophomoric defined for English-language learners

See sophomoric defined for kids

sophomoric was our Word of the Day on 06/27/2014. Hear the podcast!

Examples of sophomoric in a Sentence

His behavior at the party was sophomoric.

Recent Examples of sophomoric from the Web

The YouTube star, with more than 2.1 million subscribers on his channel, has been garnering millions of views of his hilarious videos that range from political satire to sophomoric (but extremely well-written) comedy.

— leila cobo, Billboard, "YouTube Star Rudy Mancuso Pushes Boundaries With Irreverent Comedy, Gets Serious for 'Outpost'", 21 May 2017
Some friends of mine and I used to run a fake and idiotically sophomoric men’s magazine called Hugedisk.com.

— scott gilbertson, WIRED, "Remembering the First Google Bomb", 26 Jan. 2007

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

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.