Word.ws English Dictionary

sooth

/suːθ/

sooth noun: truth. Also the obsolete form of soothe.

Noun

sooth (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Truth.
    • In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • […] "O Eginhard, disclose
      The meaning and the mystery of the rose";
      And trembling he made answer: "In good sooth,
      Its mystery is love, its meaning youth!"1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Student’s Tale. Emma and Eginhard.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields...
  2. (obsolete) Augury; prognostication.
    • The sooth of birds, by beating of their wings.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “December. Ægloga Duodecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC
  3. (obsolete) Blandishment; cajolery.
  4. (obsolete) Reality; fact.

Adjective

sooth (comparative soother, superlative soothest)

  1. (archaic) True.
  2. (obsolete) Pleasing; delightful; sweet.
    • The soothest shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
    • With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
      And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon; […]1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza XXX, page 98

Adverb

sooth (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) In truth; indeed.
    • That shall I sooth (said he) to you declare.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9

Also used as

sooth is also the obsolete form of soothe.

sooth is also the alternative form of saunth.

Forms of sooth

Adjective
comparativesoother
superlativesoothest
Verb
third-person singular presentsooths
present participlesoothing
past participlesoothed
pastsoothed

Origin of sooth

From Middle English sooth, from Old English sōþ (“truth; true, actual, real”), from Proto-West Germanic *sanþ, from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz (“truth; true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sónts, *h₁s-ont- (“being, existence, real, true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Akin to Old Saxon sōþ (“true”), Old High German sand (“true”), Old Norse sannr (“true”), Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌾𐌰 (sunja, “truth”), Old English synn (“sin, guilt"; literally, "being the one guilty”). More at sin. See also soothe, derived from the same Old English word.

Words formed from sooth

Words that rhyme with sooth

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sooth

What does sooth mean?
Sooth means truth.
What part of speech is sooth?
Sooth can be a noun, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce sooth?
Sooth is pronounced /suːθ/.

Words near sooth in the dictionary

  1. Sooters
  2. sootfall
  3. sootfalls
  4. sootflake
  5. sootflakes
  6. sooth
  7. soothability
  8. soothable
  9. soothe
  10. soothed
  11. soothen

Source and license

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