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View synonyms for soft

soft

[ sawft, soft ]

adjective

, soft·er, soft·est.
  1. yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, divided, or changed in shape; not hard or stiff:

    a soft pillow.

    Synonyms: malleable, plastic, pliable

  2. relatively deficient in hardness, as metal or wood.
  3. smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse:

    a soft fabric;

    soft skin.

  4. producing agreeable sensations; pleasant or comfortable:

    soft slumber.

  5. low or subdued in sound; gentle and melodious:

    soft music;

    a soft voice.

    Synonyms: sweet, dulcet, mellifluous

  6. not harsh or unpleasant to the eye; not glaring:

    soft light;

    a soft color.

  7. not hard or sharp:

    soft outlines.

  8. gentle or mild:

    soft breezes.

  9. genial or balmy, as climate or air.
  10. gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate:

    a soft, grandmotherly woman.

    Synonyms: sympathetic, tender

  11. smooth, soothing, or ingratiating:

    soft words.

  12. not harsh or severe, as a penalty or demand.
  13. responsive or sympathetic to the feelings, emotions, needs, etc., of others; tender-hearted.
  14. sentimental or flowery, as language:

    soft, meaningless talk.

  15. not strong or robust; delicate; incapable of great endurance or exertion:

    He was too soft for the Marines.

    Synonyms: feeble, weak

  16. Informal. easy; involving little effort; not difficult, laborious, trying, or severe:

    a soft job.

  17. Informal. easily influenced or swayed; easily imposed upon; impressionable.

    Synonyms: submissive, irresolute, compliant

  18. lenient, permissive, or conciliatory, especially regarding something that is conceived of as dangerous or threatening:

    to be soft on Communism.

  19. (of water) relatively free from mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap.
  20. (of paper money or a monetary system) not supported by sufficient gold reserves or not easily convertible into a foreign currency.
  21. (of a market, market condition, or prices) declining in value, volume, profitability, etc.; weak: Compare firm 1( def 7 ).

    a soft tourist season.

  22. (of money) plentiful or available at low interest rates or on easy terms:

    a soft loan.

  23. Metallurgy.
    1. (of a metal) easily magnetized and demagnetized.
    2. (of solder) fusing readily.
    3. (of a metal or alloy) fully annealed, so as to provide minimum mechanical hardness.
  24. Photography.
    1. (of a photographic image) having delicate gradations of tone.
    2. (of a focus) lacking in sharpness.
    3. (of a lens) unable to be focused sharply.
  25. Phonetics.
    1. (of consonants) lenis, especially lenis and voiced.
    2. (of c and g ) pronounced as in cent and gem.
    3. (of consonants in Slavic languages) palatalized. Compare hard ( def 38 ).
  26. Military. (of a missile-launching base) aboveground and relatively unprotected from enemy attack.
  27. Aerospace. (of a landing of a space vehicle) gentle; not harmful to the vehicle or its contents:

    a soft landing on the moon.

  28. Physics. (of a beam of particles or electromagnetic radiation ) having relatively low energy: Compare hard ( def 40 ).

    soft x-rays.

  29. (of a delegate, voter, etc.) not committed to any one candidate.
  30. Informal. foolish or stupid:

    soft in the head.

  31. (of a detergent) readily biodegradable.
  32. Baseball. lacking power or speed:

    a soft infield hit; a soft breaking pitch.



noun

  1. something that is soft or yielding; the soft part.
  2. softness.

adverb

  1. in a soft manner.

interjection

, Archaic.
  1. be quiet! hush!
  2. not so fast! stop!

soft

/ sɒft /

adjective

  1. easy to dent, work, or cut without shattering; malleable
  2. not hard; giving little or no resistance to pressure or weight
  3. fine, light, smooth, or fluffy to the touch
  4. gentle; tranquil
  5. (of music, sounds, etc) low and pleasing
  6. (of light, colour, etc) not excessively bright or harsh
  7. (of a breeze, climate, etc) temperate, mild, or pleasant
  8. dialect.
    drizzly or rainy

    a soft day

    the weather has turned soft

  9. slightly blurred; not sharply outlined

    soft focus

  10. (of a diet) consisting of easily digestible foods
  11. kind or lenient, often excessively so
  12. easy to influence or impose upon
  13. prepared to compromise; not doctrinaire

    the soft left

  14. informal.
    feeble or silly; simple (often in the phrase soft in the head )
  15. unable to endure hardship, esp through too much pampering
  16. physically out of condition; flabby

    soft muscles

  17. loving; tender

    soft words

  18. informal.
    requiring little exertion; easy

    a soft job

  19. chem (of water) relatively free of mineral salts and therefore easily able to make soap lather
  20. (of a drug such as cannabis) nonaddictive or only mildly addictive Compare hard
  21. (of news coverage) concentrating on trivial stories or those with human interest
  22. phonetics
    1. an older word for lenis
    2. (not in technical usage) denoting the consonants c and g in English when they are pronounced as palatal or alveolar fricatives or affricates (s, / /, / ʃ /, / ð /, / /) before e and i, rather than as velar stops (k, g)
    3. (in the Slavonic languages) palatalized before a front vowel or a special character ( soft sign ) written as
    1. unprotected against attack

      a soft target

    2. military unarmoured, esp as applied to a truck by comparison with a tank
  23. finance (of prices, a market, etc) unstable and tending to decline
  24. (of a currency) in relatively little demand, esp because of a weak balance of payments situation
  25. (of radiation, such as X-rays and ultraviolet radiation) having low energy and not capable of deep penetration of materials
  26. physics (of valves or tubes) only partially evacuated
  27. related to the performance of non-specific, undefinable tasks

    soft skills such as customer services and office support

  28. soft on or soft about
    1. gentle, sympathetic, or lenient towards
    2. feeling affection or infatuation for
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adverb

  1. in a soft manner

    to speak soft

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a soft object, part, or piece
  2. informal.
    See softie
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

interjection

  1. quiet!
  2. wait!
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈsoftly, adverb
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Other Words From

  • soft·ly adverb
  • soft·ness noun
  • o·ver·soft adjective
  • su·per·soft adjective
  • ul·tra·soft adjective
  • un·soft adjective
  • un·soft·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of soft1

First recorded before 1000; Middle English softe “yielding, gentle, mild,” Old English sōfte “agreeable, comfortable”; cognate with German sanft
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Word History and Origins

Origin of soft1

Old English sōfte; related to Old Saxon sāfti, Old High German semfti gentle
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. be soft on someone, Informal. to be amorously inclined toward a person; have an affection for:

    He's been soft on her for years.

More idioms and phrases containing soft

  • hard (soft) sell
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Example Sentences

Post-mortem tests failed to ascertain the cause of Abiyah's death because tests on soft tissue, which had decomposed, could not be carried out.

From BBC

There is no official data on the number of young “soft girls” quitting work altogether and living off their partners like Ms Larsson, and Ms Göransson says it is likely to be a small proportion.

From BBC

A team of researchers has beaten its own record for the fastest swimming soft robot, drawing inspiration from manta rays to improve their ability to control the robot's movement in the water.

She’s drawn and dark, where Mrs. Reed is blonde and rosy-cheeked; where Mrs. Reed is soft and maternal — she insists on the “Mrs.”

The surface is made receptive to the delicate movements of soft graphite across the page.

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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.

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