soft
Americanadjective
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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
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.
“Red flags emerged over the past month, pointing to a soft patch ahead for the index and for tech.”
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
Crucially, all specimens came from wild populations, meaning their tooth wear could not have been influenced by toothbrushes, soft drinks or processed foods.
From Science Daily • Jun. 8, 2026
“Red flags emerged over the past month, pointing to a soft patch ahead for the S&P 500 index and for tech,” Subramanian and her team said in a client note.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 8, 2026
Within a few minutes, we’d hear the soft bubbling of everything cooking together, followed by a shrill whistle, letting us know that it was time to eat.
From Salon • Jun. 7, 2026
When it was soft, he went outside and smeared it over the runners and let it freeze again.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
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.
