Sophisticate

/səˈfɪstɪkeɪt/ · verb

Meaning

To make (something) less innocent or natural; to artificialize..

Definitions by Sense

1. To make (something) less innocent or natural; to artificialize.
2. To make (something) more sophisticated (“complex, developed, or refined”); to develop, to refine.
3. To make (oneself or someone) more sophisticated (“experienced in the ways of the world, that is, cosmopolitan or worldly-wise”); to cosmopolitanize.
4. To alter and make impure (something) by mixing it with some foreign or inferior substance, especially with an intention to deceive; to adulterate; (generally) to corrupt or deceive (someone, their thinking, etc.).
5. To change the meaning of (something) in a deceptive or misleading way.
6. To apply an artificial technique to (something).
7. (intransitive) To practise sophistry (“the (deliberate) making of arguments that seem plausible but are fallacious or misleading”).
8. Synonym of sophisticated (adjective).

Example Sentences

The party to which Mrs. Berlinton was the loadſtone, was far more attractive to the diſciples of nature, though leſs ſedulouſly ſought by thoſe whom the manners and maxims of the common world had ſophiſticated.

[T]hey were not the spoiled children of affectation and refinement, but a bold, vigorous, independent race of thinkers, with prodigious strength and energy, with none but natural grace, and heartfelt unobtrusive delicacy. They were not at all sophisticated.

She was no scion of the English houses of Brown, Jones, or Robinson, born and bred in a London back slum, and christened plain Sarah or Mary, to be sophisticated later into Celestine or Mariette.

Psychologists have developed quasi-causal theories to explain the directedness of behaviour, to answer the question ‘Why are certain sorts of reasons operative?’ and these theories may well have insinuated themselves into ordinary language as part of the meaning of “motive”. It might well be, therefore, that people who are slightly sophisticated by psychological theories assume some such necessary connexion [between giving the motive for an action and making any assertions of a causal kind about a man’s emotional state].

How be it, it were harde to construe this lecture; Sophisticatid craftely is many a confecture; […]

For there are diuers motiues, drawing men to fauour mightily thoſe opinions wherein their perſwaſions are but weakely ſetled: and if the paſſions of the minde be ſtrong, they eaſily ſophiſticate the vnderſtanding, they make it apt to beeleeue vpon very ſclender warrant and to imagine infallible truth where ſcarce any probable ſhew appeareth.

This is my friend, Abel, an honeſt fellow, He let me haue good Tobacco, and he do's not Sophiſticate it, with Sack-lees, or Oyle, […]

It is the manner of the world, and so it is of the "prince of the world," to sophisticate ever the best things with hypocrisy, with superstition, with a thousand devices more.

Synonyms for sophisticate

Antonyms for sophisticate

Related Words

Word Forms

• sophisticates
• sophisticating
• sophisticated
• more sophisticate
• most sophisticate

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions