Sophism

Definition: Sophism

Sophism

Noun

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

Date "sophism" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Sophism \Soph"ism\, noun. [French expression sophisme, from Latin expression sophisma, from the Greek expression, from to make wise, to be become wise, to play the sophist, from wise.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Sophism

Synonym: sophistry (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Absurdity	Blunder, muddle, bull; Irishism, Hibernicism; slipslop; anticlimax, bathos; sophism.
Reasoning,	Sophism, solecism, paralogism; quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet; inconsistency, antilogy; "a delusion, a mockery, and a snare"; claptrap, cant, mere words; "lame and impotent conclusion".
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Sophism

English words defined with "sophism": Desophisticate ♦ Elench ♦ Sophime. (references)

Specialty definitions using "sophism": Sophist, Sophistry, Sophism, Sophisticator. (references)

Etymologies containing "sophism": Desophisticate ♦ sophist. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Sophism" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Russian (sophistry).

Domain	Title
Books	A Bizarre Will -- a play collection containing-- A Bizarre Will, Mortin Not Dead, Dictation, Sophism and Sadism, The Chrysanthemum, Crazy Notion, Night and About Nothing (French Series) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "sophism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sofizëm. (various references)

Arabic		‏مغالطة (fallacy, paralogism, sophistry), ‏سوفسطائية (sophistry), ‏المغالطة (chicanery). (various references)

Bulgarian		софизъм (fallacy). (various references)

Czech		sofismus. (various references)

Farsi		مغالطه (Chicanery, Sophistry), سفسطه (Idol, Sophistication, Sophistry). (various references)

French		sophisme. (various references)

German		Sophismus. (various references)

Greek		σόφισμα (fallacy, quibble). (various references)

Hungarian		szofizma (chicanery, sophistication). (various references)

Italian		sofisma (fallacy, sophistry). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		詭辯 , 奇弁 (sophistry), 屁理屈 (quibble). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		きべ�" (chicanery, play on words, sophistry), へりくつ (quibble). (various references)

Pig Latin		ophismsay

Portuguese		sofisma (cavil, chicanery, fallacy, fetch, quibble, quiddity, quip, quirk, sophistry). (various references)

Romanian		sofism (fallacy, sophistry). (various references)

Russian		софизм (quibble). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		sofizam. (various references)

Spanish		sofismo (casuistry, quip). (various references)

Swedish		sofism. (various references)

Turkish		sofizm, safsata (casuistry, fallacious, fallacy, flubdub, jesuitry, nonsense, quiddity, sophistry), bilgicilik. (various references)

Ukrainian		софістика (chicane, chicanery, sophistic, sophistry), софізм (amphibology, amphiboly, quibble, quibbling, quip). (various references)

Vietnamese		lối nguỵ biện. (various references)

Welsh		twyllresymeg. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	sophisma. (various references)
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	sophisma. (various references)
Old French	900-1400	sophime. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "sophism": sophisms. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Sophism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Asophus, ophis, sapphism, sophy. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "sophism" (pronounced 'Soph"ism'): Absenteeism, Anticivism, Antitheism, Aramaism, Bahaism, Bardism, Boodhism, Bossism, Boyism, Buffoonism, Burkism, Cavalierism, Chartism, Chemism, Churchism, Civism, Dashism, Deism, Frenchism, Geusdism, Jainism, Lamarckism, Lyrism, Malebranchism, Mandarinism, Mutism, Neo-Lamarckism, Occultism, Old-maidism, Ophism, Opportunism, Owlism, Panslavism, Panzoism, Pasteurism, Pharisaism, Priestism, Purism, Quackism, Rantism, Red-tapism, Routinism, Saintism, Scaphism, Sclavism, Scribism, Sectism, Selfism, Sensism, Slavism. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "h-i-m-o-p-s-s"
	-1 letter: mopish.
	-2 letters: misos, pisos, shims, ships, shops, simps, sophs.
	-3 letters: hips, hiss, hops, imps, isms, mhos, miso, miss, mops, mosh, moss, ohms, phis, pish, piso, piss, pois, poms, posh, psis, shim, ship, shmo, shop, simp, sims, sips, soph, sops.
	-4 letters: him, hip, his, hop, imp, ism, mho, mis, mop, mos, ohm, ohs, oms, ops.
	Words containing the letters "h-i-m-o-p-s-s"
	+1 letter: phimoses, phimosis, sophisms.
	+2 letters: aphorisms, isomorphs, shipworms.
	+3 letters: hemoptysis, hypnotisms, symphonies, symphonist.
	+4 letters: amphioxuses, dimorphisms, hemopoieses, hemopoiesis, homoplasies, homospories, hypocorisms, imposthumes, isomorphism, isomorphous, mentorships, mesospheric, morphinisms, oarsmanship, polytheisms, premonishes, scyphistoma, seismograph, showmanship, symphonious, symphonists, symposiarch.
	+5 letters: accomplishes, atmospherics, comradeships, consumership, coppersmiths, diastrophism, emperorships, foremanships, gymnosophist, horsemanship, hypodermises, impoverishes, isomorphisms, mesomorphies, microphysics, microspheres, misanthropes, monitorships, mycophagists, oarsmanships, overemphasis, phonemicists, phosphoniums, photomosaics, pleochroisms, postischemic, prognathisms, psychologism, scyphistomae, scyphistomas, seismographs, seismography, showmanships, spermophiles, sycophantism, symposiarchs, taphonomists, workmanships, xerophytisms.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.