Word.ws English Dictionary

softly softly

softly softly adjective: discreet, low-key, careful.

Adjective

softly softly (not comparable)

  1. (UK, often hyphenated) Discreet, low-key, careful.
    • Second, this lack of divergence is also the outcome of the EU's softly-softly approach to human rights and democracy in Morocco.2003, Annette Jünemann, Euro-Mediterranean relations after September 11, →ISBN

Adverb

softly softly (not comparable)

  1. (UK) In a very tactful, careful, or nondisruptive manner.
    • We couldn't get him back into training before Christmas time because he picked up an injury at the Cheltenham Festival last year and we had to go softly softly.2006 April 28, “Royal heads Betfred field”, in RTE Sport, Ireland, retrieved 22 Jun 2009
    Synonyms:
    gingerly

Synonyms of softly softly

Forms of softly softly

alternative formsoftly-softly
alternative formsoftly, softly

Origin of softly softly

Reduplication of softly. Likely an allusion to softly, softly, catchee monkey or a similar phrase.

Questions about softly softly

What does softly softly mean?
Softly softly means discreet, low-key, careful.
What part of speech is softly softly?
Softly softly can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near softly softly in the dictionary

  1. softlock
  2. softlocked
  3. softlocking
  4. softlocks
  5. softly
  6. softly softly
  7. softly, softly
  8. softly, softly caught the monkey
  9. softly, softly, catchee monkey
  10. softly-softlies
  11. softly-softly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: softly softly (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-softly softly.ogg.

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