Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of sophists.
- adjective Apparently sound but really fallacious; specious.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
sophistical . - noun The methods of the Greek sophists; sophistry.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to a sophist; embodying sophistry; fallaciously subtile; not sound.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Sophistical .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective plausible but misleading
- adjective of or pertaining to sophists
Etymologies
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Examples
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A comment was banned for the use of the word sophistic?
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With the movement in Greek thought which is generally known as sophistic,
Atheism in Pagan Antiquity Ingeborg Andersen 1897
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Unfortunately, the ambiguities inherent in such inconsistent characterizations of genocide have allowed for a sophistic intellectualization of the term.
Menachem Rosensaft: Criminalizing Mass Murder: 65 Years After The UN's First Condemnation Of Genocide Menachem Rosensaft 2011
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Claudius follows this with a sophistic argument -- "But you must know your father lost a father" -- which functions as a licentia.
Modality and Hamlet Hal Duncan 2010
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Unfortunately, the ambiguities inherent in such inconsistent characterizations of genocide have allowed for a sophistic intellectualization of the term.
Menachem Rosensaft: Criminalizing Mass Murder: 65 Years After The UN's First Condemnation Of Genocide Menachem Rosensaft 2011
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This seems to me to have been unnecessary and rather sophistic (except to achieve the results desired in locking up this defendant).
The Volokh Conspiracy » Not the Best Way to Inspire Confidence 2010
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Sullen countermodernity images the academic as the snide sophistic Last Man, pathetically, defensively retreated into what – all good sense knows – is pseudo-intellectual flummery.
Critique From HereNow Hal Duncan 2009
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Where these features are self-evident, the sophistic monosensicalist will not challenge the accuracy of the observation but will instead insist that “marriage” refers only to the instituionalised union of husband and wife, in order to redraw the goalposts and exclude the weight of evidence; there is only one example of “marriage” in the work, they will insist, so this canot be a key theme.
Arguing With Geeks 2 Hal Duncan 2009
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Sullen countermodernity images the academic as the snide sophistic Last Man, pathetically, defensively retreated into what – all good sense knows – is pseudo-intellectual flummery.
Archive 2009-06-01 Hal Duncan 2009
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You and I both know, I reached into that sophistic bag that could go on forever.
Release the Crowley/Gates tapes. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009
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