smooth

American  

[smooth] / smuð /

adjective

• smoother,
  comparative
• smoothest
  superlative

1. free from projections or unevenness of surface; not rough.

   smooth wood; a smooth road.

   Synonyms:

   flat, even, polished, glossy

2. generally flat or unruffled, as a calm sea.

3. free from hairs or a hairy growth.

   a smooth cheek.

4. of uniform consistency; free from lumps, as a batter, sauce, etc.

5. free from or proceeding without abrupt curves, bends, etc..

   a smooth ride.

6. allowing or having an even, uninterrupted movement or flow.

   smooth driving.

7. easy and uniform, as motion or the working of a machine.

8. having projections worn away.

   a smooth tire casing.

9. free from hindrances or difficulties.

   a smooth day at the office.

10. noting a metal file having the minimum commercial grade of coarseness for a single-cut file.

11. undisturbed, tranquil, or equable, as the feelings, temper, etc.; serene.

    a smooth disposition.

12. elegant, easy, or polished.

    smooth manners.

13. ingratiatingly polite or suave.

    That salesman is a smooth talker.

14. free from harshness, sharpness, or bite; bland or mellow, as cheese or wine.

15. not harsh to the ear, as sound.

    the smooth music of a ballroom dance band.

16. Phonetics. without aspiration.

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adverb

1. in a smooth manner; smoothly.

verb (used with object)

• smooths,
  present (3rd person singular)
• smoothed,
  past participle,  past
• smoothing
  present participle

1. to make smooth of surface, as by scraping, planing, or pressing.

2. to remove (projections, ridges, wrinkles, etc.) in making something smooth (often followed by away orout ).

3. to free from difficulties.

4. to remove (obstacles) from a path (often followed byaway ).

5. to make more polished, elegant, or agreeable, as wording or manners.

6. to tranquilize, calm, or soothe (a person, the feelings, etc.).

7. Mathematics. to simplify (an expression) by substituting approximate or certain known values for the variables.

noun

1. act of smoothing.

   She adjusted the folds with a smooth of her hand.

2. something that is smooth; a smooth part or place.

   through the rough and the smooth.

verb phrase

1. smooth over to make seem less severe, disagreeable, or irreconcilable; allay; mitigate.

   He smoothed over my disappointment with kind words.

smooth British  

/ smuːð /

adjective

1. resting in the same plane; without bends or irregularities

2. silky to the touch

   smooth velvet

3. lacking roughness of surface; flat

4. tranquil or unruffled

   smooth temper

5. lacking obstructions or difficulties

6. 1. suave or persuasive, esp as suggestive of insincerity

   2. ( in combination )

      smooth-tongued

7. (of the skin) free from hair

8. of uniform consistency

   smooth batter

9. not erratic; free from jolts

   smooth driving

10. not harsh or astringent

    a smooth wine

11. having all projections worn away

    smooth tyres

12. maths (of a curve) differentiable at every point

13. phonetics without preliminary or simultaneous aspiration

14. gentle to the ear; flowing

15. physics (of a plane, surface, etc) regarded as being frictionless

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adverb

1. in a calm or even manner; smoothly

verb

1. to make or become flattened or without roughness or obstructions

2. to take or rub (away) in order to make smooth

   she smoothed out the creases in her dress

3. to make calm; soothe

4. to make easier

   smooth his path

5. electrical engineering to remove alternating current ripple from the output of a direct current power supply

6. obsolete to make more polished or refined

noun

1. the smooth part of something

2. the act of smoothing

3. tennis squash badminton the side of a racket on which the binding strings form a continuous line Compare rough

smooth Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing smooth

• take the rough with the smooth

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Synonym Usage

See level.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• oversmoothness
  noun
• smoother
  noun
• smoothness
  noun
• unsmoothness
  noun
• presmooth
  verb (used with object)
• resmooth
  verb (used with object)
• oversmooth
  adjective
• smoothable
  adjective
• unsmooth
  adjective
• unsmoothed
  adjective
• oversmoothly
  adverb
• smoothly
  adverb
• unsmoothly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• smoother
  comparative
• smoothest
  superlative

Participles

• smoothing
  present
• smoothed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• smooth
  simple
• smooths
  simple
• have smoothed
  perfect
• has smoothed
  perfect
• am smoothing
  progressive
• are smoothing
  progressive
• is smoothing
  progressive
• have been smoothing
  perfect progressive
• has been smoothing
  perfect progressive

Past

• smoothed
  simple
• had smoothed
  perfect
• was smoothing
  progressive
• were smoothing
  progressive
• had been smoothing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will smooth
  simple
• will have smoothed
  perfect
• will be smoothing
  progressive
• will have been smoothing
  perfect progressive

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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

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smooth smoother smoothest smooths smoothed smoothing

She was born with a cleft lip and underwent two surgeries, one as a baby to close her cleft, and one when she was 10 to smooth out her lips.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

This chemical messenger allows nerve cells to communicate and helps the brain coordinate smooth, controlled movements.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026

They also depicted James’s life as smooth and sunny, despite his obsession with things that go bump in the night.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Gov. Gavin Newsom is launching a “strike force” of state government workers to help reduce bureaucratic delays and smooth the way for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

It was straight, at first, and larger than the other, and its sandy floor was smooth.

From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda

Besides proximity to power sources, many of the emerging locations offer attractive tax incentives and smoother permitting processes.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026

The researchers found that the marmoset's smaller, smoother cerebral cortex is not the result of a single developmental change.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026

Controller in hand, the game also feels much smoother.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

I learned most of my U.S. history from C-Span, and life goes smoother when you “Pretend to Know Something.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

By the time I got to Mrs. Rouse’s room, I’d rolled that word around so much, I thought I might just have rolled its sharp edges a tiny bit smoother.

From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

Heidi Alexander and Apostolos Tzitzikostas agreed to "work together with aim for smoothest possible EES checks ahead of the busy summer period", the UK government said.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Glass scientists who worked on developing the smoothest and lightest smartphone displays are now also spending time on specialized glass for packaging advanced AI processing chips, according to industry executives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026

But it hasn’t always been the smoothest ride.

From Barron's ● Nov. 21, 2025

Turner’s Philadelphia tenure didn’t get off to the smoothest start.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2025

On the footpath that led past the warren, bright threads of light—watery, a mirage—trickled and glittered across the shortest, smoothest grass.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

The company’s overall net sales were up 7.6% on a constant-currency basis, which smooths out the impact of foreign-currency fluctuations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

These include having software that smooths out rapid acceleration, adding sound systems and subtle seat vibrations to signal to passengers that the car is moving, and offering adaptive regenerative braking that reduces sudden deceleration.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

In this cosmic battle, dark energy appears to be winning — expanding our universe over trillions of years until everything thins and smooths out into almost nothingness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

This layer smooths the input data before calculating changes, avoiding the instability caused by traditional methods.

From Science Daily ● May 6, 2026

She stands up and smooths out her purple sweatshirt with two hands as she repeats herself, just loud enough for me to hear this time.

From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi

Towering granite boulders smoothed over millions of years frame powder-white sand and turquoise water so clear it looks tinted: That’s Anse Source d’Argent, one of the Seychelles’ dozens of beaches scattered across 115 islands.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

To revisit the giant impact, Denton used a more advanced form of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations, or SPH.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

Munich's Allianz Arena is sculpted by thousands of diamond-shaped inflatable cushions, while Sydney's similarly named Allianz Stadium has a flatter facade smoothed with long bronze fins.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

Ahead of the opening arguments, Rinderknecht smoothed back his hair and his lawyer helped adjust his tie, before giving him a pat on the back.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

Before he could knock, Mama smoothed her dress, then pulled the screen door open.

From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce

That was a big step toward smoothing the enrollment process, but the accounts still need to be claimed by parents to manage them and to allow family members, friends and employers to contribute.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

Team boss Frederic Vasseur, who said he would talk to the drivers before discussing this in the media, has some smoothing out to do before this weekend's race in Madrid.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

Anetta Reszko, a New York dermatologist, said that those treatments include “skin boosting” injectables like Skinvive by Juvederm, which delivers hyaluronic acid under the skin for a smoothing effect.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

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

Before my eyes his face lost its wrinkles, smoothing out to look like that of a much younger man, and the cotton....All the cotton in the room began to tremble.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

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Related Words

• continuous
• creamy
• easy
• effortless
• flat
• fluid
• gentle
• glossy
• mild
• peaceful
• polished
• quiet
• serene
• shiny
• silky
• sleek
• soft
• stable
• steady
• tranquil

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