sophomore
Americannoun
-
a student in the second year of high school or college.
-
a person or group in the second year of any endeavor.
He's a sophomore on Wall Street.
adjective
-
of or relating to a sophomore.
-
of or being a second effort or second version.
Their sophomore album was even better than their first.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
- presophomore adjective
Etymology
Origin of sophomore
1645–55; earlier sophumer, probably equivalent to sophum sophism + -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By the end of his college sophomore year, he was meticulously cataloging them.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
“You Seem Pretty Sad” comes two and a half years after the release of her sophomore album, “Guts.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 2, 2026
Pence, a sophomore, might reclassify to be eligible for the 2027 draft.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
“If we keep training it, it’ll make it better and we’ll lose more jobs,” said Ollie Carson, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Texas at Dallas, who also said she’s “vehemently against” the technology.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 22, 2026
The college sophomore Dad Charity introduced Jupe to last year after she sat in on his History of the African American Experience course—Dad’s a professor at Emory, by the way—because he thought they’d “really vibe.”
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
