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Definition of Sophist
1. Noun. Any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects.
2. Noun. Someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious.
Generic synonyms: Ratiocinator, Reasoner
Derivative terms: Casuistical, Casuistical, Casuistry, Sophism, Sophistic, Sophistical
Definition of Sophist
1. n. 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.
Definition of Sophist
1. Noun. One of a class of teachers of rhetoric, philosophy, and politics in ancient Greece, especially one who used fallacious but plausible reasoning. ¹
2. Noun. (by extension) One who is captious, fallacious, or deceptive in argument. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Sophist
1. one that uses sophisms [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Sophist
Literary usage of Sophist
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1901)
"The sophist Libanius was born in the capital of the East; he publicly professed
the arts of rhetoric and declamation at Nice, Nicomedia, Constantinople, ..."
2. Classical Philology by University of Chicago press, JSTOR (Organization) (1909)
"LUCIAN THE sophist BY EMILY JAMES PUTNAM In the second century of our era the
Hellenic spirit, which had been eclipsed for a time by the practical genius of ..."
3. The Journal of Philology by William George Clark, John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor, William Aldis Wright, Ingram Bywater, Henry Jackson (1885)
"I have of the sophist of Plato, and on some found Campbell's notes upon ...
de- of its philosophical bearings' (Trans- tails of the sophist not less helpful ..."
4. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1854)
"J When Julian ascended the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and
reward the Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate age, ..."
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