smooth
Americanadjective
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smoother,
comparative
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smoothest
superlative
-
free from projections or unevenness of surface; not rough.
smooth wood; a smooth road.
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generally flat or unruffled, as a calm sea.
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free from hairs or a hairy growth.
a smooth cheek.
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of uniform consistency; free from lumps, as a batter, sauce, etc.
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free from or proceeding without abrupt curves, bends, etc..
a smooth ride.
-
allowing or having an even, uninterrupted movement or flow.
smooth driving.
-
easy and uniform, as motion or the working of a machine.
-
having projections worn away.
a smooth tire casing.
-
free from hindrances or difficulties.
a smooth day at the office.
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noting a metal file having the minimum commercial grade of coarseness for a single-cut file.
-
undisturbed, tranquil, or equable, as the feelings, temper, etc.; serene.
a smooth disposition.
-
elegant, easy, or polished.
smooth manners.
-
ingratiatingly polite or suave.
That salesman is a smooth talker.
-
free from harshness, sharpness, or bite; bland or mellow, as cheese or wine.
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not harsh to the ear, as sound.
the smooth music of a ballroom dance band.
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Phonetics. without aspiration.
adverb
verb (used with object)
-
smooths,
present (3rd person singular)
-
smoothed,
past participle, past
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smoothing
present participle
-
to make smooth of surface, as by scraping, planing, or pressing.
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to remove (projections, ridges, wrinkles, etc.) in making something smooth (often followed by away orout ).
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to free from difficulties.
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to remove (obstacles) from a path (often followed byaway ).
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to make more polished, elegant, or agreeable, as wording or manners.
-
to tranquilize, calm, or soothe (a person, the feelings, etc.).
-
Mathematics. to simplify (an expression) by substituting approximate or certain known values for the variables.
noun
-
act of smoothing.
She adjusted the folds with a smooth of her hand.
-
something that is smooth; a smooth part or place.
through the rough and the smooth.
verb phrase
adjective
-
resting in the same plane; without bends or irregularities
-
silky to the touch
smooth velvet
-
lacking roughness of surface; flat
-
tranquil or unruffled
smooth temper
-
lacking obstructions or difficulties
-
-
suave or persuasive, esp as suggestive of insincerity
-
( in combination )
smooth-tongued
-
-
(of the skin) free from hair
-
of uniform consistency
smooth batter
-
not erratic; free from jolts
smooth driving
-
not harsh or astringent
a smooth wine
-
having all projections worn away
smooth tyres
-
maths (of a curve) differentiable at every point
-
phonetics without preliminary or simultaneous aspiration
-
gentle to the ear; flowing
-
physics (of a plane, surface, etc) regarded as being frictionless
adverb
verb
-
to make or become flattened or without roughness or obstructions
-
to take or rub (away) in order to make smooth
she smoothed out the creases in her dress
-
to make calm; soothe
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to make easier
smooth his path
-
electrical engineering to remove alternating current ripple from the output of a direct current power supply
-
obsolete to make more polished or refined
noun
-
the smooth part of something
-
the act of smoothing
-
tennis squash badminton the side of a racket on which the binding strings form a continuous line Compare rough
Synonym Usage
See level.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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oversmoothnessnoun
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smoothernoun
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smoothnessnoun
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unsmoothnessnoun
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presmoothverb (used with object)
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resmoothverb (used with object)
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oversmoothadjective
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smoothableadjective
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unsmoothadjective
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unsmoothedadjective
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oversmoothlyadverb
-
smoothlyadverb
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unsmoothlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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smoothsimple
-
smoothssimple
-
have smoothedperfect
-
has smoothedperfect
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am smoothingprogressive
-
are smoothingprogressive
-
is smoothingprogressive
-
have been smoothingperfect progressive
-
has been smoothingperfect progressive
Past
-
smoothedsimple
-
had smoothedperfect
-
was smoothingprogressive
-
were smoothingprogressive
-
had been smoothingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of smooth
First recorded before 1050; (adjective) Middle English smothe, late Old English smōth; compare Middle English smethe, Old English smēthe “smooth”; cognate with Old Saxon smōthi; (verb) late Middle English smothen, derivative of the adjective; replacing Middle English smethen, Old English smēth(i)an
Explanation
Something smooth is free of roughness, stubble, or other imperfections that you can feel with your hands. If your wooden table is giving you splinters, use a sander to smooth it down and make it smooth. As you can see, smooth works as both a verb and an adjective. Smooth has lots of interesting uses: Caught in a wind storm? Better smooth out your hair when you head inside. Got a friend who's good with the ladies? Try imitating his smooth moves. Need help to smooth out a dispute between two friends? Invite them out for coffee and offer to help them smooth out their differences. Some pianists prefer ivory keys to plastic because they're less smooth, and their fingers don't slip. The best dancers can move smoothly from one move to another.
Vocabulary lists containing smooth
Mellow Out: Synonyms for "Calm"
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Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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:
The supply crunch for memory and storage components has allowed companies to raise prices and score long-term customer contracts that aim to smooth out the market’s cyclical behavior.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Rather than focusing on explosive, fast-paced movements, tai chi is generally composed of slow, smooth, continuous movements staying within a modest range of motion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
It’s smooth, simple, and zips along at up to 42 miles per hour.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
It allows information to travel over long distances at high speed because the glass inside the fiber is extremely pure and its surface is engineered to be exceptionally smooth.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
It was a good stick: straight and thick and so smooth it might have been polished, except for one little pointed bump in the middle.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
Gatwood hoped to put in a new fence and was raking some rocks and dirt to make the yard smoother.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The military has proposed a series of multiyear agreements instead of annual purchases to guarantee a smoother supply of weaponry over time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Manufacturers often add chemicals that alter the liquid's surface tension to create smoother, more uniform coatings.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Lately, however, Micron and Sandisk have been taking steps to make their financial performance smoother and more predictable.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
The left fork looks smoother, flatter, like the kinda thing you should be rolling carts over.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
But it hasn’t always been the smoothest ride.
From Barron's ● Nov. 21, 2025
Australia may be unbeaten but did not start this tournament in the smoothest fashion, with individual performances digging their batting line-up out of trouble in their opening matches.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2025
Despite spending somewhere close to $650 million to assemble their rosters, the two most prestigious franchises in Major League Baseball didn’t exactly have the smoothest summers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2025
“Not the smoothest of rides to get here,” first baseman Freddie Feeman added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2025
And that pretty much made him the smoothest dude I knew.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
The language smooths out, the argument grows more confident, and the hesitation fades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
The combination smooths earnings compared to pure production-driven models.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 28, 2026
This smooths out optical distortions while avoiding extra noise that could be mistaken for real gravitational-wave signals.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2025
It smooths out the noise and highlights the true character of the stock.
From Barron's ● Dec. 4, 2025
She smooths the paper and then admires it like a work of art.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
Her overseas posting and relocation were smoothed by $1.2 million in perks, covering housing-related costs, lease termination, tuition, tax prep and other benefits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
“Over time, he stuck closer to his briefing book. The sharp edges were smoothed, reducing points of conflict as well as the information content,”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 25, 2026
And in a culture so hellbent on idol worship and exhausting discourse, where every blemish is smoothed out or screamed at, “SNL” still offers us something scrappy and unvarnished.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
The five-time major champion also smoothed his return by paying fines said to be worth around £63m.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
Pearl smoothed her skirts and pulled in her lips.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
During the album’s rollout, the pop star’s visage was perfected with the help of some uncanny AI smoothing, while her accompanying “Confessions II” short film featured a team of AI artists in the credits.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
It can work for some people who prefer the “pull off the Band-Aid approach,” but for most, smoothing out the tax consequences works best.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
The visit was officially meant to celebrate transatlantic ties as the United States marks its 250th anniversary of independence from Britain, but much of Charles's time has been spent smoothing over tensions over Iran.
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
Finds included bone pegs for stretching vellum as it dried, and tools such as knives and pumice stones for scraping and smoothing animal hides.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
As they begin walking to the house, Jeremy works on smoothing out the birdseed on the table.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
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.
