Cultured vs. Sophisticated — What's the Difference?

Educated, polished, and refined; cultivated.

Having or showing much worldly knowledge or cultural refinement

Produced under artificial and controlled conditions

Very complex or complicated

Learned in the ways of civilized society; civilized; refined.

Suitable for or appealing to the tastes of sophisticates

Artificially developed.

Of a person: having obtained worldly experience, and lacking naiveté; cosmopolitan, worldly-wise.

Simple past tense and past participle of culture

Of art or other things: appealing to the tastes of an intellectual or sophisticated (sense 1) person; cerebral; also, cultured, elegant, refined.

Under culture; cultivated.

Complicated, especially of complex technology.

Characterized by mental and moral training; disciplined; refined; well-educated.

(obsolete)

Marked by refinement in taste and manners;

Mixed with a foreign or inferior substance; not genuine or pure; adulterated, impure.

Of a thing: having its meaning changed in a deceptive or misleading way.

Simple past tense and past participle of sophisticate

Having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir faire;

Ahead in development; complex or intricate;

Marked by wide-ranging knowledge and appreciation of many parts of the world arising from urban life and wide travel;

Intellectually appealing;