Word.ws English Dictionary

sophi

UK/ˈsɒfaɪ/

sophi noun: wise men; sages. Also the obsolete form of Sufi.

Noun (1)

sophi

  1. (obsolete, plural, plural-only) Wise men; sages.
    • Valladolid, our Athens gins to tast
      Of thy ranck filth, Camphire and Lettuce chast,
      Are cleane casheird, now Sophi Ringoes eate,
      Candid Potatoes, are Athenians meate.1598: John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie, Three Books of Satyres, volume 1, chapter 3, page 181 (1966 republication)

Noun (2) capitalized: Sophi

Sophi (plural Sophis)

  1. (archaic) Archaic spelling of Sufi.
    • Others derive Sophi from the Sophi or Sages anciently called Magi.1728, Ephraim Chambers, editor, Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 1st edition, volume 2, London: printed for J. and J. Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 97
  2. (archaic) Archaic spelling of Safawi.
    • The Safavid shahs were commonly termed by Western writers "Sophie", "Sophy", "Sophi" or "Soffi". All these terms were probably corruptions of Ṣafī, the name of the founder of the Safavid Order, rather than of Ṣūfī, as the Safavid supporters called themselves.1980, Roger Savory, Iran under the Safavids, Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge University Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 259

Also used as

sophi is also the obsolete form of Sufi.

Forms of sophi

alternative formsophy
alternative formsophoi
pluralSophis

Origin of sophi

From the Latin sophī, the nominative plural form of sophus, from the Ancient Greek σοφός (sophós).

Questions about sophi

What does sophi mean?
Sophi means wise men; sages.
What part of speech is sophi?
Sophi is a noun.
How do you pronounce sophi?
Sophi is pronounced /ˈsɒfaɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of sophi?
The plural of sophi is Sophis.

Words near sophi in the dictionary

  1. Sophenians
  2. sopher
  3. sopheric
  4. sopherim
  5. sophers
  6. sophi
  7. Sophia
  8. Sophian
  9. Sophiana
  10. Sophianism
  11. Sophias

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sophi (page history and authors); Sophi (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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