Word of the Day

: August 21, 2021

sophistry

noun SAH-fuh-stree

What It Means

Sophistry refers to reasoning or arguments that sound correct but which are actually false.

// The professor challenged the student's arguments, insisting they were based on sophistry and could be easily disproven.

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sophistry in Context

"If you listen to the sophistry emanating from corporate leaders…, prices for goods and services are surging, and one of the causes is quite simple: Workers want more money." — Jacob Silverman, The New Republic, 11 June 2021

Did You Know?

The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus sophist (which comes from Greek sophistēs, meaning "wise man" or "expert") earned a negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner." Sophistry is reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually unsound, or reasoning that is used to deceive.