The invention relates to the technical field of chemical industry synthesis, and particularly discloses a 4-phenoxybenzoic acid synthesis method, which comprises: carrying out a mixing heating reaction on phenol as a raw material, sodium hydroxide and water to obtain a sodium phenolate solution; slowly adding the sodium phenolate solution into a mixture of tetrahydronaphthalene and p-chlorobenzoicacid in a dropwise manner while heating, and carrying out a thermal insulation reaction; after completing the reaction, cooling the reaction liquid, filtering, washing the obtained solid, filtering,mixing by adding clear water, adjusting the pH value, and filtering to obtain crude and wet 4-phenoxybenzoic acid; and dissolving the crude and wet 4-phenoxybenzoic acid in ethanol, adsorbing with active carbon, filtering, cooling, and filtering to obtain the product. According to the present invention, the process route is simple and easy to operate, the reaction can be completed in one step, thestarting raw material is simple and cheap, and is easy to obtain, the generated waste water is less, and the method is suitable for industrial production, and is a completely-new synthesis route.