SOPHISTICATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sophistication mean? 

• SOPHISTICATION (noun)
  The noun SOPHISTICATION has 5 senses:

1. uplifting enlightenment

2. a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone

3. being expert or having knowledge of some technical subject

4. the quality or character of being intellectually sophisticated and worldly through cultivation or experience or disillusionment

5. falsification by the use of sophistry; misleading by means of specious fallacies

  Familiarity information: SOPHISTICATION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOPHISTICATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Uplifting enlightenment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

edification; sophistication

Hypernyms ("sophistication" is a kind of...):

enlightenment (education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sophistication"):

disenchantment; disillusion; disillusionment (freeing from false belief or illusions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

sophism; sophistication; sophistry

Hypernyms ("sophistication" is a kind of...):

fallacy; false belief (a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning)

Derivation:

sophisticate (practice sophistry; change the meaning of or be vague about in order to mislead or deceive)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Being expert or having knowledge of some technical subject

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

understanding affine transformations requires considerable mathematical sophistication

Hypernyms ("sophistication" is a kind of...):

expertise; expertness (skillfulness by virtue of possessing special knowledge)

Derivation:

sophisticate (make more complex or refined)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The quality or character of being intellectually sophisticated and worldly through cultivation or experience or disillusionment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

mundaneness; mundanity; sophistication; worldliness

Hypernyms ("sophistication" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Antonym:

naivete (lack of sophistication or worldliness)

Derivation:

sophisticate (make less natural or innocent)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Falsification by the use of sophistry; misleading by means of specious fallacies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he practiced the art of sophistication upon reason

Hypernyms ("sophistication" is a kind of...):

falsehood; falsification (the act of rendering something false as by fraudulent changes (of documents or measures etc.) or counterfeiting)

Derivation:

sophisticate (practice sophistry; change the meaning of or be vague about in order to mislead or deceive)