- Sophist 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.
sophist
n 1: any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects 2: someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious