Word.ws English Dictionary

soft

UK/sɒft//sɔft/

soft adjective: easily giving way under pressure.

Adjective

soft (comparative softer, superlative softest)

  1. Easily giving way under pressure.
    • My head sank easily into the soft pillow.
    • My favorite Greek cheese is the creamy, sheepy manouri: delicately scented and almost spreadable, it’s like a softer, pudgier feta.2007 September 9, Sara Dickerman, “Olympic Dinners”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2017
    Antonyms:
    hard, resistant, solid, stony
  2. Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
    • Polish the silver with a soft cloth to avoid scratching.
    • soft silk; a soft skin
    Synonyms:
    fluffy, non-abrasive
    Antonyms:
    abrasive, scratchy
  3. Quiet.
    • I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees.
    • Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    Synonyms:
    quiet
    Antonyms:
    loud
  4. Gentle.
    • There was a soft breeze blowing.
    • I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's; / Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    Synonyms:
    gentle, light, nesh
    Antonyms:
    harsh, rough, strong
  5. Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
    • soft eyes
    • A soft answer turneth away wrath.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 15:1
  6. Gentle in action or motion; easy.
    • On her soft axle, white she paces even, / And bears thee soft with the smooth air along.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
  7. Limp, weak.
  8. Weak in character; impressible.
    • The deceiver soon found this soft place of Adam's.1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC
  9. Requiring little or no effort; easy.
    • Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job.1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá
  10. Not bright or intense.
    • soft lighting
  11. Having a slight angle from straight.
    • At the intersection with two roads going left, take the soft left.
    • It's important to dance on soft knees to avoid injury.
    Synonyms:
    acute
    Antonyms:
    hard
  12. Voiced; sonant; lenis.
    • DH represents the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes.1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Show 27 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (rare) Voiceless.
  2. (Slavic) Palatalized.
  3. (slang) Excessively empathetic or concerned about others’ wellbeing.
    • He’s too soft for the ruthless world of finance.
  4. (slang) Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
    • When it comes to drinking, he is as soft as they come.
    • ‘Going soft on me, Jack?’ ‘You know I’m not.’ ‘Then why all the fuss and blow?’1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 31
    Synonyms:
    meek, mild, nesh, wimpy
    Antonyms:
    firm, strict, tough
  5. Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
    • You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.
    Antonyms:
    hard
  6. (UK, colloquial) Foolish.
    • He made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.1621, Robert Burton, The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy
    Antonyms:
    sensible
  7. Of a ferromagnetic material; a material that becomes essentially non-magnetic when an external magnetic field is removed, a material with a low magnetic coercivity. (compare hard)
  8. Physically or emotionally weak.
    • see: snowflake and softie
  9. (UK) Effeminate.
    • A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering.1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
  10. Agreeable to the senses.
    • a soft liniment
    • soft wines
  11. (UK, dated, slang) Agreeable generally; pleasant.
    • And then there'll be the insurance people. And then a young man introducing himself as "The Press". I'll tell you what, sergeant, this being burgled isn't such a soft thing after all.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
  12. Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
    • soft colours
    • the soft outline of the snow-covered hill
  13. Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
  14. Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
    • The admin imposed a soft ban on the user.
    • Messages removed by soft deletion can be recovered if necessary.
  15. Emulated with software; not physically real.
    • Press the red button on the soft phone to hang up.
  16. Not likely to cause addiction.
  17. Not containing alcohol.
    Antonyms:
    alcoholic, hard
  18. Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
    • soft on crime
    Antonyms:
    hard
  19. Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
    • Overall the rental market is soft and multifamily permit activity is almost nonexistent.1995, U.S. Housing Market Conditions, page 45
    Antonyms:
    hard
  20. Softcore
    Antonyms:
    hard, hardcore
  21. Mild, tame, moderate; far from intense or excluding harsh elements.
    • soft humiliation play
    • soft raceplay
    Synonyms:
    light
    Antonyms:
    rough
  22. Of paper: unsized.
  23. Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.
  24. Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.
  25. Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.
  26. (idiomatic, informal) Attracted to or emotionally involved (with someone).
  27. (UK, slang) Fake; counterfeit.
    • All along, Nickle, I have tried to make you realise that this stroke was not to be a matter of planting a few soft fivers on racecourse bookies—I used to think that you had imagination. We intend to make notes of all the values and chiefly of the big ones.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London

Interjection

  1. (archaic) Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.
    • Soft you; a word or two before you goe: / I haue done the State ſome ſeruice, and they know’t: / No more of that.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • But ſoft, what light through yonder window breaks?c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Noun

soft (countable and uncountable, plural softs)

  1. (archaic, countable) A soft-headed or foolish person; an idiot.
    • It'll do you no good to sit in a spring-cart o' your own, if you've got a soft to drive you: he'll soon turn you over into the ditch.1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 9, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first
  2. A soft drink.
    • Artois' story with water and softs was embodied in the difficult relationship between Raymond Boon and Spa's main owner and CEO, Guy du Bois.2019, Kenneth Bertrams, Julien Del Marmol, Sander Geerts, Becoming the World's Biggest Brewer
  3. (countable) A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.
  4. (colloquial, countable) A soft sound or part of a sound.
    • The expander doesn't really make the louds louder and the softs softer in one step […]2012, Sam McGuire, Paul Lee, The Video Editor's Guide to Soundtrack Pro, page 103
  5. (countable, dated, nonstandard, rare) A piece of software.
    • Sega and third-party licensees are set to release an abundance of softs that range from intense shooters to sports to reflex-testers.December 1989, Electronic Gaming Monthly
  6. (UK, obsolete, slang, uncountable) Banknotes.
    • At the end of the two years and a half I got into the way of forged Bank-of-England notes. A man I knew in the course of business, said, ‘I would cut that game of ‘smatter-hauling,’ (stealing handkerchiefs), and do a little soft,’ (pass bad notes).1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
    • Putting his mouth to my ear, he whispered hoarsely. "Do you want to buy any queer soft?"
      […] In my dream I had been haunted by a counterfeiter, vulgarly called "a smasher."1876, The Guernsey Magazine, volume 4

Adverb

soft (comparative more soft, superlative most soft)

  1. (obsolete) Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.
    • A Knight soft ryding towards them they spyde1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9
    • There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans...

soft meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

soft in Hindi

easily giving way under pressure
कोमल komal, नरम naram

soft in Tamil

மென்மையான, மெதுவான

soft in Marathi

easily giving way under pressure
मऊ maū

soft in Urdu

easily giving way under pressure
کومل kōmal, نرم naram
More languagesFewer languages
soft in Bengali
নরম norom
soft in Telugu
మెత్తటి mettaṭi
soft in Malayalam
മൃദു mr̥du
soft in Kannada
ಮೃದು mṛdu, ಕೋಮಲ kōmala
soft in Punjabi
ਕੂਲ਼ਾ kūḷā, ਮਖਮਲੀ makhmalī, ڈھلا ḍhillā, کوک kūk
soft in Gujarati
પોચું pocũ, નરમ naram, મુલાયમ mulāyam
soft in Odia
କଅଁଳ kaãḷa
soft in Sanskrit
मृदु mṛdu, कोमल komala
soft in Assamese
নৰম norom
soft in Nepali
गीलो gīlo
soft in Tagalog
malambot
soft in Arabic
نَاعِم nāʕim, لَيِّن layyin
soft in Malay
lembut
soft in Indonesian
lembut
soft in Persian
نرم narm, ملایم molâyem, ساویز sâviz
soft in Thai
นุ่ม nûm, นิ่ม nîm
soft in Vietnamese
khẽ, khẽ khàng, mềm, nhẹ
soft in Myanmar
ပျော့ pyau., တိုး tui:

Examples of soft in a sentence

  • […] Category Two implement hitches and doubled high-traction agricultural tires hung four to each massive rear axle to breast the steepest, softest dune or guckiest swamp […]2010, Robert Beeman, No More Time for Sorrow, page 133:
  • They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 11:8:
  • The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.c. 1533, William Tyndale, An exposicion upon of Mathew:
  • A face with gladness overspread, / Soft smiles, by human kindness bred.1815, William Wordsworth, To a Highland Girl:

All 40 example sentences with soft

Synonyms of soft

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

7 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of soft

Forms of soft

Adjective
comparativesofter
superlativesoftest
Noun
pluralsofts
Adverb
comparativemore soft
superlativemost soft

Origin of soft

From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte, alteration of earlier sēfte (“soft”), from Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) (“level, even, smooth, soft, gentle”) (compare *sōmiz (“agreeable, fitting”)), from Proto-Indo-European *semptio-, *semtio-, from *sem- (“one, whole”). Cognate with West Frisian sêft (“gentle; soft”), Dutch zacht (“soft”), German Low German sacht (“soft”), German sanft (“soft, yielding”), Old Norse sœmr (“agreeable, fitting”), samr (“same”). More at seem, same.

From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte (“softly”), from Proto-West Germanic *samftō (“softly”).

Words formed from soft

Phrases with soft

186 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with soft

Questions about soft

What does soft mean?
Soft means easily giving way under pressure.
What is soft in Hindi?
Soft in Hindi is कोमल (komal), नरम (naram). See Soft meaning in Hindi.
How do you use soft in a sentence?
[…] Category Two implement hitches and doubled high-traction agricultural tires hung four to each massive rear axle to breast the steepest, softest dune or guckiest swamp […]
What part of speech is soft?
Soft can be an adjective, an interjection, a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce soft?
Soft is pronounced /sɒft/ (UK).

Words near soft in the dictionary

  1. sofritos
  2. sofritto
  3. sofrittos
  4. Sofronio Española
  5. SOFs
  6. soft
  7. soft 404
  8. soft 404s
  9. soft a
  10. soft a's
  11. soft as a baby's bottom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: soft (page history and authors); soft (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); മൃദു (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಕೋಮಲ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ڈھلا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); નરમ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); କଅଁଳ (Odia) (page history and authors); गीलो (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-soft.ogg.

Cite this entry: “soft.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/soft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.