Word.ws English Dictionary

sophister

sophister noun: synonym of sophist.

Noun

sophister (plural sophisters)

  1. (derogatory, historical, obsolete) Synonym of sophist.
    • A subtle traitor needs no sophister.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] I wil not be afraid to saie vnto a Pope or Cardinall in this plight, be of good comfort, we haue to doe with a mercifull God; rather to make the best of a little which we hold well, and not with a captious sophister, which gathereth the worst out of everie thing, wherein wee erre.1612, Richard Hooker, A Learned Discourse of Iustification, Workes, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrowne, Oxford, page 62
    Synonyms:
    sophist
  2. (UK, US, archaic, universities) A student who is advanced beyond the first year of their residence.
    • In the older American colleges, the junior and senior classes were originally called Junior Sophisters and Senior Sophisters. The term is also used at Oxford and Dublin.1851, Benjamin Homer Hall, College Words and Customs, Cambridge, Mass.: John Bartlett, page 287

Synonyms of sophister

Forms of sophister

pluralsophisters
alternative formsoph

Origin of sophister

From Middle English shophister, sofister, sofistre, sophister, sophistre, sovyster, from Anglo-Norman sofistre, a variant of Old French sofiste, sophiste. Equivalent to sophist + -er.

Words formed from sophister

Questions about sophister

What does sophister mean?
Sophister means synonym of sophist.
What part of speech is sophister?
Sophister is a noun.
What is the plural of sophister?
The plural of sophister is sophisters.

Words near sophister in the dictionary

  1. sophiology
  2. Sophis
  3. sophism
  4. sophisms
  5. sophist
  6. sophister
  7. sophisters
  8. sophisti-pop
  9. sophistic
  10. sophistical
  11. sophistically

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sophister (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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