# sophism

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. The school of the sophists in antiquity; their beliefs and method of teaching philosophy and rhetoric.
2. A flawed argument, superficially correct in its reasoning, usually designed to deceive.
3. An intentional fallacy.
4. Sophistic, fallacious reasoning or argumentation.
5. Wisdom and knowledge.

## Etymology
From Middle English sophim, from Old French soffime, sofime, sofisme, sophisme, from Latin sophisma (“fallacy, sophism”), from Ancient Greek σόφῐσμᾰ (sóphĭsmă), from σοφίζω (sophízō) + -μα (-ma).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sophism