Meanings
- pluralsubstantiveplural of sophos (“sage, wise man”)
[…] many who are now classified separately as poets, philosophers, sophists, or historians, but whom the Greeks would have grouped together under the term sophoi—“wise men.”
2007, Michael Gagarin, Paul Woodruff, “Early Greek legal thought”, in Fred D. Miller, Jr., Carrie-Ann Biondi, editors, A treatise of legal philosophy and general jurisprudence, volume 6, Dordrecht: Springer, →ISBN, page 71 more example
[…] since sophos means “wise,” sophia generally means “wisdom,” and sophoi denotes “wise men” of any kind and in any field […]. As a consequence, he regards Thales as having been the first of the sophoi and the profession as having begun with the seven sophoi of the oracle at Delphi […]. Given this understanding, the sophoi stood in close relation to religious ritual as well as to linguistic, musical, and dramatic performance, and philosophy itself becomes first of all an advanced form of poetic discourse still submerged in mythical images […]
2005, Christian J. Emden, Nietzsche on language, consciousness, and the body, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 16
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Ancient Greekσοφοί“wise”
- Englishsophoi
Borrowed from Ancient Greek σοφοί (sophoí, “wise”, adjective).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
sophoi. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sophoi
“sophoi.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sophoi. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sophoi,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sophoi.
Source: sophoi on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.