sophist

UK: /ˈsɒfɪst/ US: /ˈsɑfɪst/ ,(sof′ist)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

soph•ist /ˈsɑfɪst/   n. [countable]

1. Philosophy one who reasons cleverly but not truthfully.

See -soph-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

soph•ist  (sof′ist), n. 

1. Philosophy (often cap.) [Gk. Hist.]
   • Philosophy any of a class of professional teachers in ancient Greece who gave instruction in various fields, as in general culture, rhetoric, politics, or disputation.
   • Philosophy a person belonging to this class at a later period who, while professing to teach skill in reasoning, concerned himself with ingenuity and specious effectiveness rather than soundness of argument.
2. Philosophy a person who reasons adroitly and speciously rather than soundly.
3. a philosopher.

• Greek sophisté̄s sage, derivative of sophízesthai
• Latin sophista
• 1535–45

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

sophist / ˈsɒfɪst/ noun

1. (often capital) one of the pre-Socratic philosophers who were itinerant professional teachers of oratory and argument and who were prepared to enter into debate on any matter however specious
2. a person who uses clever or quibbling arguments that are fundamentally unsound

Etymology: 16th Century: from Latin sophista, from Greek sophistēs a wise man, from sophizesthai to act craftily