Word.ws English Dictionary

soft Brexit

US/ˈsɑft ˌbɹɛksɪt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/ˈsɔft ˌbɹeksɘt/

soft Brexit proper noun: the (hypothetical) withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union while generally remaining in European institutions (e.g. the European single market or customs union).

Proper noun

soft Brexit

  1. (UK) The (hypothetical) withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union while generally remaining in European institutions (e.g. the European single market or customs union).
    • Without question now, Britain is not ready for the negotiations, having spent the past year largely avoiding a real debate on the topic, other than a vague argument over the merits of a “hard Brexit” (as a clean break from the European Union is known), versus a “soft Brexit,” which would require...2017 June 9, Steven Erlanger, Katrin Benhold, Stephen Castle, “The British Election That Somehow Made Brexit Even Harder”, in The New York Times
    • The debate over the right terms and conditions for Britain’s departure from the European Union is often simplified into two clashing concepts: a soft Brexit and a hard one. The first tends to be favoured by those who voted Remain in the 2016 referendum, the second by those who voted Leave. Yet what...2018 June 25, J. P., “How a soft Brexit differs from a hard one”, in The Economist

Examples of soft Brexit in a sentence

  • The debate over the right terms and conditions for Britain’s departure from the European Union is often simplified into two clashing concepts: a soft Brexit and a hard one.2018 June 25, J. P., “How a soft Brexit differs from a hard one”, in The Economist:
  • Labour's vision for a soft Brexit would have seen Britain remain closely aligned with the EU customs, tariff and regulatory regimes and the continent's single market.2019 February 28, William Booth, Karla Adam, “UK Parliament votes down Labour's bid for a soft Brexit”, in New Zealand Herald, archived...

Origin of soft Brexit

From soft + Brexit.

Questions about soft Brexit

What does soft Brexit mean?
Soft Brexit means the (hypothetical) withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union while generally remaining in European institutions (e.g. the European single market or customs union).
How do you use soft Brexit in a sentence?
The debate over the right terms and conditions for Britain’s departure from the European Union is often simplified into two clashing concepts: a soft Brexit and a hard one.
What part of speech is soft Brexit?
Soft Brexit is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce soft Brexit?
Soft Brexit is pronounced /ˈsɑft ˌbɹɛksɪt/ (US).

Words near soft Brexit in the dictionary

  1. soft boxing
  2. soft boy
  3. soft boys
  4. soft break
  5. soft breaks
  6. soft Brexit
  7. soft butch
  8. soft butches
  9. soft c
  10. soft canon
  11. soft capping

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: soft Brexit (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:

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