SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
sophist
noun
A person who uses clever but misleading reasoning; also a member of an ancient Greek teaching tradition.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Clever but misleading reasoner
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topThis critical sense concerns misleading reasoning. The historical Sophists were an ancient Greek teaching tradition; membership in that tradition is not itself proof of dishonest argument.
Ancient Greek teacher
No close substitute is listed for this sense. The expressions below help explain the idea.
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topThese related descriptions identify the historical teaching tradition. They are broader than its membership and do not imply deceptive reasoning.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See sophist in use
The debater sounded like a sophist when he defended every contradiction with wordplay.
Another speaker acted like a sophist, cleverly claiming that anyone who criticized an existing rule must oppose the society itself.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license