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sophist

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.04 sec.
soph·ist  (sfst)
n.
1.
a. One skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation.
b. A scholar or thinker.
2. Sophist Any of a group of professional fifth-century b.c. Greek philosophers and teachers who speculated on theology, metaphysics, and the sciences, and who were later characterized by Plato as superficial manipulators of rhetoric and dialectic.

[Middle English sophiste, from Latin sophista, from Greek sophists, from sophizesthai, to become wise, from sophos, clever.]

sophist
Noun
a person who uses clever but false arguments [Greek sophistēs a wise man]
sophistic adj

sophist
1. Ancient Greece. a teacher of rhetoric, philosophy, etc.; hence, a learned person.
2. one who is given to the specious arguments often used by the sophists.
See also: Rhetoric and Rhetorical Devices
1. Ancient Greece. a teacher of rhetoric, philosophy, etc; hence, a learned person.
2. one who is given to the specious arguments often used by the sophists.
See also: Argumentation
1. Ancient Greece. a teacher of rhetoric, philosophy, etc.; hence, a learned person.
2. one who is given to the specious arguments often used by the sophists. — sophistic, sophistical, adj.
See also: Learning
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.Sophist - any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects
philosopher - a specialist in philosophy
2.sophist - someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious
ratiocinator, reasoner - someone who reasons logically


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Such too is the discovery made by Iphigenia in the play of Polyidus the Sophist.
When the sophist would supplant, with the wild theories of his worldly wisdom, the positive mandates of inspiration, let him remember the expansion of his own feeble intellects, and pause—let him feel the wisdom of God in what is partially concealed.
He may be regarded as standing in the same relation to Gorgias as Hippocrates in the Protagoras to the other great Sophist.
 
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