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SOPHISTIC
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Dictionary entry overview: What does sophistic mean?
• SOPHISTIC (adjective)
The adjective SOPHISTIC has 2 senses:
1. of or pertaining to sophists
2. plausible but misleading
Familiarity information: SOPHISTIC used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of or pertaining to sophists
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
sophist (someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious)
Derivation:
Sophist (any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Plausible but misleading
Synonyms:
sophistic; sophistical
Similar:
invalid (having no cogency or legal force)
Derivation:
sophism (a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone)
sophist (someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious)
Context examples
Since I myself have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, I cannot but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its inmates lean towards the errors of non causa and ignoratio elenchi.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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