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n. One skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation.

n. A scholar or thinker.

n. Any of a group of professional fifth-century B.C. 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.

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

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

n. 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.

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

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

n. 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.

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

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

n. 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."

philosopher    reasoner    ratiocinator   

sophistry    sophism   

prevarication    logic chopper   

dialectician    humorist    sentimentalists    sophists    dullard