Library / English Dictionary

SOPHISTICATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A worldly-wise person

Synonyms:

man of the world; sophisticate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sophisticate" is a kind of...):

adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sophisticate"):

cosmopolitan; cosmopolite (a sophisticated person who has travelled in many countries)

slicker (a person with good manners and stylish clothing)

Derivation:

sophisticate (make less natural or innocent)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make more complex or refined

Example:

a sophisticated design

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "sophisticate" is one way to...):

complicate; elaborate; rarify; refine (make more complex, intricate, or richer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

sophistication (being expert or having knowledge of some technical subject)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Alter and make impure, as with the intention to deceive

Example:

Sophisticate rose water with geraniol

Synonyms:

doctor; doctor up; sophisticate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "sophisticate" is one way to...):

adulterate; debase; dilute; load; stretch (corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Practice sophistry; change the meaning of or be vague about in order to mislead or deceive

Example:

Don't twist my words

Synonyms:

convolute; pervert; sophisticate; twist; twist around

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "sophisticate" is one way to...):

denote; refer (have as a meaning)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

sophistication (falsification by the use of sophistry; misleading by means of specious fallacies)

sophistication (a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make less natural or innocent

Example:

Their manners had sophisticated the young girls

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "sophisticate" is one way to...):

civilise; civilize; cultivate; educate; school; train (teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

sophisticate (a worldly-wise person)

sophistication (the quality or character of being intellectually sophisticated and worldly through cultivation or experience or disillusionment)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Nevertheless, it is not clear if sleep allows for more sophisticated forms of learning.

(Learning While Sleeping?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Over the years, nutrition science has become more sophisticated, and research by ARS scientists is showing that counting calories isn't always as simple as it may seem.

(Going Nuts Over Calories, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Simulating others’ decisions is a sophisticated cognitive process that is rooted in social learning.

(‘Mindreading’ neurons simulate decisions of social partners, University of Cambridge)

They have some of the most sophisticated behaviors in the animal kingdom: large, highly-developed brains capable of learning and problem-solving.

(First-ever octopus genome sequenced, NSF)

The team put data from MESSENGER into a sophisticated computer program that allowed them to adjust parameters and figure out what the interior composition of Mercury must be like to match the way it spins and the way the spacecraft accelerated around it.

(A Closer Look at Mercury’s Spin and Gravity Reveals the Planet’s Inner Solid Core, NASA)

In Science, a team based at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Yale University School of Medicine described the use of a sophisticated technique called single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) to study prefusion Env.

(The Structure and Dynamics of HIV Surface Spikes, NIH)

Astronomers use sophisticated algorithms to search the data for these dips in brightness, and in particular, to correct for the spacecraft’s small movements in space—this is the 'flickering' of the pixels seen in the movie.

(Light From An Ultra-Cool Neighbor, NASA)

Through the application of sophisticated computational modeling the researchers made several key findings, including:
— Human herpesvirus 6A and 7 were more abundant in Alzheimer’s disease samples than non-Alzheimer’s.
— There are multiple points of overlap between virus-host interactions and genes associated with Alzheimer’s risk.
— Multiple viruses impact the biology of Alzheimer’s disease across domains such as DNA, RNA and proteins.

(Viruses may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, National Institutes of Health)

By using sophisticated analytical chemistry techniques and performing complex biological tests to quantify hormonal activity, the Granada-based researchers studied the presence of the plastic component bisphenol A, the preservatives known as parabens, and the hormonal activity (estrogenicity and androgenicity) of the sock extracts.

(Nine out of ten pairs of baby socks on the market contain traces of bisphenol A and parabens, University of Granada)

Researchers compared recently available global land cover observations of temperature and humidity from satellites over 12 years with results from GFDL’s sophisticated, high-resolution Earth System Model and found that model results were consistent with observations.

(Forests minimize severe heat waves, NOAA)