sophia
/soʊˈfi.ə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.70 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A female given name from Ancient Greek.
name
A town in West Virginia, United States; named for early resident Sophia McGinnis.
Example Sentences
- "To say the truth, Sophia, when very young, discerned that Tom, though an idle, thoughtless, rattling rascal, was nobody's enemy but his own […]"
- "I intended to call her after Aunt Grizel, but my wife who, during pregnancy, had been reading romances, insisted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grizel should be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was, by her directions, called Sophia, so that we had two romantic names in the family, but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it."
- "Gram said, "Sophia. Would that be an Italian name?" "It came from a great-aunt," Sophia told her, turning briefly in her direction. "Was your great-aunt Italian?" "No, Scottish." "Oh." I knew what Gram was aiming at here. She wanted to find out whether Sophia was Catholic. She poked her headful of pink curlers forward for a moment and looked at me. "Presbyterian, " I told her. "Oh." She sat back again, Oh, well, you could see her thinking, her own daughter had married Episcopal and the sky hadn't fallen in. "It's a pretty name, anyhow," she told Sophia. "Thank you." "I like names that end with an a, don't you? […]"
- "It is written from Constantinople that the 'Sophia' of Persia is dead and that his brother had taken the government."
Etymology
Chiefly from Latin Sophia, from Ancient Greek Σοφία (Sophía), from σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”), especially in reference to holy or divine wisdom under the influence of Biblical Hebrew חוכמה (khokhmá), to the early martyr St. Sophia, and to many figures of European royalty and nobility. Also used as a calque for the many cognate forms, such as Italian Sofia, Ukrainian Софі́я (Sofíja), Russian Софи́я (Sofíja), Polish Zofia, etc. Doublet of Sofia.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Sophia, Σοφία, חוכמה
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /soʊˈfi.ə/
- British English: /ˈsəʊ.fiː.ə/