soup
Americannoun
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soups
plural
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a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, or vegetables with various added ingredients.
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Slang. a thick fog.
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Slang. added power, especially horsepower.
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Slang. nitroglycerin.
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Photography Slang. developing solution.
verb phrase
idioms
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in the soup, in trouble.
He'll be in the soup when the truth comes out.
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from soup to nuts,
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from the first through the last course of a meal.
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from beginning to end; to a complete, encompassing degree; leaving nothing out.
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noun
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a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, vegetables, etc, usually served hot at the beginning of a meal
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informal a photographic developer
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informal anything resembling soup in appearance or consistency, esp thick fog See also peasouper
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a slang name for nitroglycerine
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informal in trouble or difficulties
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of soup
1645–55; 1940–45 soup for def. 6; < French soupe, Old French souppe, sope < Germanic; compare Dutch sopen to dunk. See sop
Explanation
Soup is a liquid or thick, creamy food that's usually hot and savory. If you have a sore throat, your grandma might make you a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup. Most soup is made by cooking vegetables, beans, meat, or fish (or a combination of these) in water for a long time. Sometimes soup is thickened with cream or flour, or by pureeing some of the ingredients. Certain soups, like gazpacho and vichyssoise, are served cold, and others are sweet and made with fruit. You may hear people describe a dense, thick fog as "pea soup" or use the phrase "soup to nuts" to mean "everything."
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:
Instead, the particles that make them up - quarks and gluons - moved freely in a kind of hot "soup."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
I recently asked ChatGPT what to do with the excess lentil soup in my fridge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
The agency offices sit in a dense warren of buildings above a shopping precinct, where vendors sell local fruit and workers queue for takeaway sour soup rice noodles.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Temple Street Night Market grew after World War II, a “nightclub for regular people,” says the woman beside me, also eating soup dumplings carefully.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
Dad is tossing a salad while Aunt Melissa spoons chicken noodle soup into bowls.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
When dried and salted, guitarfish is used in soups and stews across Ghana.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Parada Calderon said his family sends him about $100 per month to spend on commissary items, which he spends on packets of crackers, coffee, soups, soap, shampoo, deodorant and chips.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Drink more water and try cold soups and other “water-rich foods to help you stay hydrated.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Recently, in an effort to slim down my expenses, I’ve been reaching for more canned goods — notably, soups.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
And because of this, he was more kind to her and he bought her special food and delicate soups made of white fish and the hearts of young cabbages.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
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.
