English

Noun

sophont ‎(plural sophonts)

1. (chiefly science fiction) An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.
   • 1966, Anderson, Poul, Trouble Twisters:

     Likewise with the psychology of intelligent species. Most sophonts indeed possess basic instincts which diverge more or less from man's. With those of radically alien motivations we have little contact.

   • 1980, David Brin, Sundiver, p50

     I'm honored to meet a sophont of the Soro line in person!

   • 1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, Tor Books, p406

     Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sophont does to another.

   • 1997, Spider Robinson, Lifehouse, Baen Books, p2

     Only one sophont appeared to be involved—and not a sophisticated one.

   • 2004, Howard Tayler Schlock Mercenary, Mar. 28, 2004, web-comic / self-published

     Like most sensible sophonts, they invented civilization. With civilization came civility, civil service, and of course civil war.

   • 2007, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, Nov. 30, 2007, web-comic / self-published

     As I understand it, he sought to avoid turning one-point-six trillion terran sophonts into undead, war-mongering super-soldiers.

   • 2009, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, Oct. 11, 2009, web-comic / self-published

     Reflection on the nature of sapience, and the ubiquity of violence among sophonts?

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:sentient

References

• sophont at the OED Science Fiction Citations Project
• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007) Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8, page 194

Anagrams

• photons