devil’s advocate

D

devil’s advocate (metaphorical idiom)
/ˈdɛv.əlz ˈæd.və.kət/

Meanings

• A person who argues against something just to test it.
• In other words, it means to argue against an idea only for the sake of testing it.
• To deliberately take the opposite side to provoke thought, reveal flaws, or highlight weaknesses.
• (Literal, historical) An official in the Roman Catholic Church (advocatus diaboli) who opposed the canonization of a candidate for sainthood.

Synonyms: contrarian, skeptic; challenger; opponent; doubter; naysayer.

Example Sentences

1. I’ll play devil’s advocate and point out the flaws in your plan.
2. In the strategy meeting, John played devil’s advocate to make sure the team had considered all possible risks.
3. She acted as devil’s advocate during the discussion, pointing out weaknesses in the proposal that others had overlooked.
4. During the debate, she kept acting as devil’s advocate to make sure every argument was thoroughly tested.
5. She agreed to take the role of devil’s advocate so the discussion wouldn’t become one-sided.
6. Historically, the Catholic Church appointed a devil’s advocate to argue against declaring someone a saint. (literal)

Origin and History

Ecclesiastical Origin

The phrase “devil’s advocate” has its roots in a formal office within the Roman Catholic Church. Beginning in the sixteenth century, the canonization process required not only advocates who promoted the cause of a potential saint but also an appointed official whose task was to argue against it. This figure, officially known in Latin as the advocatus diaboli (“advocate of the devil”), was responsible for examining the life, character, and miracles attributed to the candidate with rigorous skepticism. The role was deliberately adversarial: the devil’s advocate would raise doubts, challenge testimonies, and search for inconsistencies or exaggerations. By ensuring that every claim could withstand critical scrutiny, the office provided balance and credibility to the canonization process. It is from this structured and highly institutional role that the modern figurative meaning of the phrase emerged.

Country of Origin

Because the office formed part of the papal canonization procedure, the phrase and practice originated in the Roman Catholic curia centered in Rome. The institutional procedures and their Latin terminology spread across Catholic Europe, but the origin of the office itself is rooted in the Vatican’s canon-law processes.

Historical Development

The formalized adversarial procedure for canonizations was consolidated in the late sixteenth century as part of Counter-Reformation canonical reform. The office associated with arguing the opposing case became firmly established in that period and continued, with evolving duties, until procedural changes in the twentieth century reduced its adversarial power.

Early English Evidence

Historical records show that an English citation dated to 1616 indicates that a form of the term existed in the early seventeenth century. More importantly, the earliest verifiable printed record appears in John Lacy’s ‘Warnings of the Eternal Spirit, by the Mouth of His Servant John, Sirnam’d Lacy. The Second Part’ (published by B. Bragg, London, 1707). In this work, the phrase occurs in the line:

“O, said St. Peter, that be far from thee, Lord; therein he was the Devil’s Advocate.”

This demonstrates that the idiom was in circulation in English by the early eighteenth century. Later, a more widely cited printed instance appears in the mid-eighteenth century, where the expression in its modern phrasing can be clearly traced.

Broader Usage

From its institutional origin as a formal adversarial function in canonization, the phrase broadened into general usage to describe anyone who deliberately argues an opposing view in order to test, probe, or strengthen a position. Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became a standard idiom in English for contrarian argument used as a rhetorical or analytical device rather than a literal office.

Note

Two important points emerge about the documentary trail: first, an earlier citation dated to 1616 is recorded in authoritative sources, but its full bibliographic details are less commonly available.

Second, John Lacy’s 1707 work provides the earliest verifiable printed record in English, predating the often-cited mid-eighteenth-century examples. Together, these records demonstrate both the ecclesiastical origin and the evolution into common English usage.

Variants

• play devil’s advocate
• acting as devil’s advocate
• take the role of devil’s advocate

Against, Devil, Rome

Last update: September 23, 2025 2:51 AM