Adjacent Words

Sophist definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SOPH'IST, n. [L. sophista.]
1. A professor of philosophy; as the sophists of Greece.
2. A captious or fallacious reasoner.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects
2: someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious [syn: casuist, sophist]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin sophista, from Greek sophist?s, literally, expert, wise man, from sophizesthai to become wise, deceive, from sophos clever, wise Date: 14th century 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

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 one who reasons with clever but fallacious arguments. 2 Gk Antiq. a paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric, esp. one associated with moral scepticism and specious reasoning. Derivatives: sophistic adj. sophistical adj. sophistically adv. Etymology: L sophistes f. Gk sophistes f. sophizomai: see SOPHISM

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sophist Soph"ist, n. [F. sophiste, L. sophistes, fr. Gr. ?. See Sophism.] 1. One of a class of men who taught eloquence, philosophy, and politics in ancient Greece; especially, one of those who, by their fallacious but plausible reasoning, puzzled inquirers after truth, weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general hatred and contempt. Many of the Sophists doubdtless card not for truth or morality, and merely professed to teach how to make the worse appear the better reason; but there scems no reason to hold that they were a special class, teaching special opinions; even Socrates and Plato were sometimes styled Sophists. --Liddell & Scott. 2. Hence, an impostor in argument; a captious or fallacious reasoner.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Quibbler, captious reasoner, fallacious reasoner, artful logician.

Moby Thesaurus

Jesuit, casuist, choplogic, cosmologist, dialectician, logicaster, logician, logistician, metaphysician, paralogist, philosophaster, philosophe, philosopher, philosophizer, ratiocinator, rationalist, rationalizer, reasoner, sophister, speculator, syllogist, syllogizer, thinker