soft
Americanadjective
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softer,
comparative
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softest
superlative
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yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, divided, or changed in shape; not hard or stiff.
a soft pillow.
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relatively deficient in hardness, as metal or wood.
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smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse.
a soft fabric;
soft skin.
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producing agreeable sensations; pleasant or comfortable.
soft slumber.
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low or subdued in sound; gentle and melodious.
soft music;
a soft voice.
- Synonyms:
- sweet, dulcet, mellifluous
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not harsh or unpleasant to the eye; not glaring.
soft light;
a soft color.
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not hard or sharp.
soft outlines.
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gentle or mild.
soft breezes.
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genial or balmy, as climate or air.
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gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate.
a soft, grandmotherly woman.
- Synonyms:
- sympathetic, tender
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smooth, soothing, or ingratiating.
soft words.
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not harsh or severe, as a penalty or demand.
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responsive or sympathetic to the feelings, emotions, needs, etc., of others; tender-hearted.
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sentimental or flowery, as language.
soft, meaningless talk.
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not strong or robust; delicate; incapable of great endurance or exertion.
He was too soft for the Marines.
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Informal. easy; involving little effort; not difficult, laborious, trying, or severe.
a soft job.
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Informal. easily influenced or swayed; easily imposed upon; impressionable.
- Synonyms:
- submissive, irresolute, compliant
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lenient, permissive, or conciliatory, especially regarding something that is conceived of as dangerous or threatening.
to be soft on Communism.
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(of water) relatively free from mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap.
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(of paper money or a monetary system) not supported by sufficient gold reserves or not easily convertible into a foreign currency.
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(of a market, market condition, or prices) declining in value, volume, profitability, etc.; weak.
a soft tourist season.
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(of money) plentiful or available at low interest rates or on easy terms.
a soft loan.
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Metallurgy.
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(of a metal) easily magnetized and demagnetized.
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(of solder) fusing readily.
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(of a metal or alloy) fully annealed, so as to provide minimum mechanical hardness.
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Photography.
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(of a photographic image) having delicate gradations of tone.
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(of a focus) lacking in sharpness.
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(of a lens) unable to be focused sharply.
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Phonetics.
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(of consonants) lenis, especially lenis and voiced.
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(of c andg ) pronounced as in cent and gem.
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(of consonants in Slavic languages) palatalized.
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Military. (of a missile-launching base) aboveground and relatively unprotected from enemy attack.
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Aerospace. (of a landing of a space vehicle) gentle; not harmful to the vehicle or its contents.
a soft landing on the moon.
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Physics. (of a beam of particles orelectromagnetic radiation ) having relatively low energy.
soft x-rays.
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(of a delegate, voter, etc.) not committed to any one candidate.
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Informal. foolish or stupid.
soft in the head.
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(of a detergent) readily biodegradable.
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Baseball. lacking power or speed.
a soft infield hit; a soft breaking pitch.
noun
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something that is soft or yielding; the soft part.
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softness.
adverb
interjection
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be quiet! hush!
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not so fast! stop!
idioms
adjective
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easy to dent, work, or cut without shattering; malleable
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not hard; giving little or no resistance to pressure or weight
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fine, light, smooth, or fluffy to the touch
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gentle; tranquil
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(of music, sounds, etc) low and pleasing
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(of light, colour, etc) not excessively bright or harsh
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(of a breeze, climate, etc) temperate, mild, or pleasant
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dialect drizzly or rainy
a soft day
the weather has turned soft
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slightly blurred; not sharply outlined
soft focus
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(of a diet) consisting of easily digestible foods
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kind or lenient, often excessively so
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easy to influence or impose upon
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prepared to compromise; not doctrinaire
the soft left
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informal feeble or silly; simple (often in the phrase soft in the head )
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unable to endure hardship, esp through too much pampering
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physically out of condition; flabby
soft muscles
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loving; tender
soft words
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informal requiring little exertion; easy
a soft job
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chem (of water) relatively free of mineral salts and therefore easily able to make soap lather
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(of a drug such as cannabis) nonaddictive or only mildly addictive Compare hard
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(of news coverage) concentrating on trivial stories or those with human interest
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phonetics
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an older word for lenis
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(not in technical usage) denoting the consonants c and g in English when they are pronounced as palatal or alveolar fricatives or affricates (s, / dʒ /, / ʃ /, / ð /, / tʃ /) before e and i, rather than as velar stops (k, g)
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(in the Slavonic languages) palatalized before a front vowel or a special character ( soft sign ) written as
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unprotected against attack
a soft target
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military unarmoured, esp as applied to a truck by comparison with a tank
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finance (of prices, a market, etc) unstable and tending to decline
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(of a currency) in relatively little demand, esp because of a weak balance of payments situation
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(of radiation, such as X-rays and ultraviolet radiation) having low energy and not capable of deep penetration of materials
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physics (of valves or tubes) only partially evacuated
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related to the performance of non-specific, undefinable tasks
soft skills such as customer services and office support
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gentle, sympathetic, or lenient towards
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feeling affection or infatuation for
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adverb
noun
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a soft object, part, or piece
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informal See softie
interjection
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quiet!
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wait!
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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softnessnoun
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oversoftadjective
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supersoftadjective
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ultrasoftadjective
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unsoftadjective
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softlyadverb
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unsoftlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of soft
First recorded before 1000; Middle English softe “yielding, gentle, mild,” Old English sōfte “agreeable, comfortable”; cognate with German sanft
Explanation
Soft things are fluffy or yielding to the touch. A kitten's fur and your favorite fleece pajama pants are soft. So is spreadable cheese or the spongy ground of a wet field. A soft voice is gentle, and a soft light or color is subdued or muted. A table with soft edges is rounded instead of sharp-cornered. Soft rain is mild. No matter how the adjective soft is used, it's always the opposite of words like hard, loud, bright or stubborn. It comes from a Germanic root that means "level, even, smooth, or gentle."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
These first two games were supposed to be the soft start, of at least a relatively gentle ramp-up to the thorny part of the schedule.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
That’s also why, when “Fjord” opens with soft piano chords playing “Amazing Grace,” it’s safe to assume the song will be an integral motif throughout the film.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
The property market remains the soft underbelly of the U.S. economy, and the housing-start data echoed weakness in home-builder confidence earlier in the week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The two soft dismissals highlighted Sri Lanka's woes - Lahiru Udara was caught at mid-on and Kamil Mishara chipped one straight back to the slow left-arm spinner.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
I put them on their chains so they could get at the fresh straw in their houses to make soft beds and realized that I had learned something again that night.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
Mr. Ueda on Friday tried to reset expectations with a commitment to stay on guard against inflation even if price rises slow below the 2% target owing to softer energy prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The latest dollar upswing has been broad-based across major and Asian currencies, with higher Treasury yields, softer risk sentiment and elevated oil prices weighing on higher-beta currencies, lower-yielders and oil-importing currencies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
“Markets are effectively being pulled in two directions — higher energy prices are strengthening the case for tighter policy, while softer underlying inflation could give central banks a reason to remain cautious.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
Even Universal and Illumination’s “Minions & Monsters” had a softer audience reception than previous installments of the powerhouse “Despicable Me” and “Minions” franchise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
The softer her voice became, the greater the danger, but Nigel wasn't to know this.
From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
That is the softest sector in our data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Whatever these men think they’re proving, what they are actually demonstrating is they are the softest, saddest boys alive, incapable of understanding what real courage looks like.
From Salon ● Jan. 9, 2026
A private gauge of China’s service activity showed expansion at the softest pace in six months, weighed by slowing sales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
There are six compounds in all for the season, from the hardest, the C1, to the softest, the C6.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025
The bird’s clawed feet contracted then released, the softest scratching noise ever, a stick-drawing scraping across cold concrete.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
