sophont
US/ˈsoʊfɑnt/
sophont noun: an intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.
Noun
sophont (plural sophonts)
- An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.
- Likewise with the psychology of intelligent species. Most sophonts indeed possess basic instincts which diverge more or less from man's. With those of radically alien motivations we have little contact.1966, Poul Anderson, Trouble Twisters
- I'm honored to meet a sophont of the Soro line in person!1980, David Brin, Sundiver, page 50
- Synonyms:
- sentient
Examples of sophont in a sentence
- Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sophont does to another.1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, Tor Books, page 406:
- Only one sophont appeared to be involved—and not a sophisticated one.1997, Spider Robinson, Lifehouse, Baen Books, page 2:
Synonyms of sophont
Forms of sophont
| plural | sophonts |
|---|
Origin of sophont
From sopho- + -ont. First used in the 1966 works by Poul Anderson, coined by his wife Karen Anderson.
Questions about sophont
- What does sophont mean?
- Sophont means an intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.
- How do you use sophont in a sentence?
- Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sophont does to another.
- What part of speech is sophont?
- Sophont is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sophont?
- Sophont is pronounced /ˈsoʊfɑnt/ (US).
- What is the plural of sophont?
- The plural of sophont is sophonts.
Words near sophont in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sophont (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “sophont.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sophont. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.