sophistication

[ suh-fis-ti-key-shuhn ]

noun

1. sophisticated sophisticated character, ideas, tastes, or ways as the result of education, worldly experience, etc.:

   the sophistication of the wealthy.

2. change from the natural character or simplicity, or the resulting condition.
3. complexity, as in design or organization.
4. impairment or debasement, as of purity or genuineness.
5. the use of sophistry; a sophism, quibble, or fallacious argument.

Other Words From

• anti·so·phisti·cation noun
• hyper·so·phisti·cation noun
• over·so·phisti·cation noun
• self-so·phisti·cation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sophistication¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Medieval Latin sophisticātiōn-, stem of sophisticātiō; equivalent to sophisticate + -ion

Example Sentences

Compared to 2016, Russia’s online interference strategies have grown in sophistication, says Dov Levin, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Hong Kong.

From Ozy

The Lazarus laundering operation, says Janczewski, involves creating and maintaining hundreds of false accounts and identities, a consistent level of sophistication and effort that underlines just how important the operation is for Pyongyang.

From MIT Technology Review

In the end there will likely be four or perhaps five relatively large providers that can offer competing levels of technological sophistication and reach.

From Search Engine Land

Some retailers are media owners in their own right and so there are different levels of sophistication around commerce activations.

From Digiday

Conservatives scoring highest on tests for cognitive sophistication or quantitative reasoning skills are most susceptible to motivated reasoning about climate science.

From No Straight News

Lacey Noonan's A Gronking to Remember makes 50 Shades of Grey look like Madame Bovary in terms of its literary sophistication.

From The Daily Beast

So, the display—which has the aesthetic sophistication of a middle school science project—will go up for week.

From The Daily Beast

His dresses were worn by Hollywood stars and first ladies, emanating glamour and sophistication.

From The Daily Beast

This Palmer stands for elegance and sophistication: the embodiment of natural gifts, both athletic and personal.

From The Daily Beast

Anyone who thinks otherwise, to employ the emotional sophistication of “Shake It Off,” can suck it.

From The Daily Beast

She chattered with the childish artlessness that at times veiled her sophistication.

From Project Gutenberg

Their being very much cheaper accounts for the sophistication.

From Project Gutenberg

Sophistication has often been resorted to in order ostensibly to improve damaged or cheap coffee.

From Project Gutenberg

It is the ideal of being natural, of being primitive, dismissing "refinements" and the tricks of literary sophistication.

From Project Gutenberg

Glahn and Edvarda are both essentially and deeply primitive though afflicted with a blight of sophistication.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• composure
• elegance
• finesse
• poise
• refinement
• tact
• worldliness