sophistication

English

Etymology

From Middle English sophisticacion, sophisticacioun, sophisticacoun, from Old French sofisticacion, sophisticacion and Medieval Latin sophisticātio, -iōnis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˌfɪs.tɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

sophistication (countable and uncountable, plural sophistications)

1. Enlightenment or education.
2. Cultivated intellectual worldliness; savoir-faire.
3. Deceptive logic; sophistry.
4. Falsification or contamination.
5. Complexity.

   The police force were unable to deal with the sophistication of the criminal network.

6. Ability to deal with complexity.
7. (archaic) The act of sophisticating; adulteration.

   the sophistication of drugs

   • 1663-1671, Robert Boyle, Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy:

     how generally they [drugs] are adulterated by the fraudulent avarice of the feller ; especially when the sophistication is very gainful

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “cultivated intellectual worldliness”): provincialism

Derived terms

• oversophistication

Translations

enlightenment or education

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 教養／教养 (zh) (jiàoyǎng)

• Polish: zaawansowanie n
• Scottish Gaelic: ionnsachadh m (education)

cultivated intellectual worldliness; savoir-faire

• Bulgarian: изисканост (bg) f (iziskanost), изтънченост (bg) f (iztǎnčenost)
• German: Kultiviertheit f
• Italian: raffinatezza (it) f
• Latin: urbānitās f
• Polish: obycie (pl) n, wyrobienie n

deceptive logic; sophistry

• Bulgarian: софистика (bg) f (sofistika)
• German: Raffinesse (de) f
• Hungarian: álokoskodás (hu), hamis érvelés

falsification or contamination

• Bulgarian: подправяне n (podpravjane), фалшификация (bg) f (falšifikacija)
• Hungarian: meghamisítás (hu), elferdítés (hu)

complexity

• Bulgarian: сложност (bg) f (složnost)
• German: Raffinesse (de) f, Komplexheit f, Ausgereiftheit m, Sophistikation f, Hochentwicklung f
• Italian: complessità (it) f, finezza (it) f
• Polish: finezja (pl) f, wyrafinowanie (pl) n

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} sophistication (fr) f
• German: ^{(please verify)} Kultiviertheit f, ^{(please verify)} Raffinesse (de) f, ^{(please verify)} Verfeinerung (de) f
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} sophistication, ^{(please verify)} mundanitate, ^{(please verify)} saper viver
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} sofisticazione (it)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} sofisticación (es)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɔ.fis.ti.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

sophistication f (plural sophistications)

1. sophistication

Further reading

• “sophistication”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.