noun. undefined

noun. One skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation.

noun. A scholar or thinker.

noun. Any of a group of professional fifth-century BC Greek philosophers and teachers who speculated on theology, metaphysics, and the sciences, and who were later characterized by Plato as superficial manipulators of rhetoric and dialectic.

noun. One who is skilled or versed in a thing; a specialist.

noun. An ancient Greek philosophic and rhetorical teacher who took pay for teaching virtue, the management of a household or the government of a state, and all that pertains to wise action or speech.

noun. Hence A captious or fallacious reasoner; a quibbler.

noun. One of a class of men who taught eloquence, philosophy, and politics in ancient Greece; especially, one of those who, by their fallacious but plausible reasoning, puzzled inquirers after truth, weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general hatred and contempt.

noun. Hence, an impostor in argument; a captious or fallacious reasoner.

noun. One of a class of teachers of rhetoric, philosophy, and politics in ancient Greece, especially one who used fallacious but plausible reasoning.

noun. One who is captious, fallacious, or deceptive in argument.

noun. any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects

noun. someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious

"29 But they disdained the language and the sciences of the Greeks; and the vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the flattering applause of the schools, was mortified to find that his robust servant was a captive of more value and importance than himself."

sophism  sophistry  

philosopher  ratiocinator  reasoner  

casuist  censurer  courtesan  dialectician  diplomatist  

Jesuit  casuist  choplogic  cosmologist  dialectician