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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

soft.

Easily giving way under pressure.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/sɒft/Received-Pronunciation/sɔːft/Ireland, Multicultural-London-English, Received-Pronunciation/sɔft/General-American/sɑft/cot-caught-merger
  1. Easily giving way under pressure.

    My head sank easily into the soft pillow.
  2. Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.

    Polish the silver with a soft cloth to avoid scratching.
    soft silk; a soft skin
  3. Quiet.

    I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees.
  4. Gentle.

    There was a soft breeze blowing.
  5. Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.

  6. Gentle in action or motion; easy.

  7. Limp, weak.

  8. Weak in character; impressible.

  9. Requiring little or no effort; easy.

  10. Not bright or intense.

  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.
  12. Voiced; sonant; lenis.

  13. Voiceless.

    rare
  14. Palatalized.

  15. Excessively empathetic or concerned about others’ wellbeing.

    slang
    He’s too soft for the ruthless world of finance.
  16. Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.

    slang
    When it comes to drinking, he is as soft as they come.
  17. Low in dissolved calcium compounds.

    You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.
  18. Foolish.

    UK · colloquial
  19. 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)

  20. Physically or emotionally weak.

  21. Effeminate.

    UK
  22. Agreeable to the senses.

  23. Agreeable generally; pleasant.

    UK · dated · slang
  24. Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.

  25. Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.

  26. 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.
  27. Emulated with software; not physically real.

    Press the red button on the soft phone to hang up.
  28. Not likely to cause addiction.

  29. Not containing alcohol.

  30. Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.

  31. Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.

  32. Softcore

  33. Mild, tame, moderate; far from intense or excluding harsh elements.

  34. Of paper: unsized.

  35. Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.

  36. Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.

  37. Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.

  38. Attracted to or emotionally involved (with someone).

    idiomatic · informal
  39. Fake; counterfeit.

    UK · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Germanic *samþuz /*samftuz Proto-Indo-European *-yos Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *-jaz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) Old English sōfte Middle English softe English 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.

intj/sɒft/Received-Pronunciation/sɔːft/Ireland, Multicultural-London-English, Received-Pronunciation/sɔft/General-American/sɑft/cot-caught-merger
  1. Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Germanic *samþuz /*samftuz Proto-Indo-European *-yos Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *-jaz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) Old English sōfte Middle English softe English 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.

noun/sɒft/Received-Pronunciation/sɔːft/Ireland, Multicultural-London-English, Received-Pronunciation/sɔft/General-American/sɑft/cot-caught-merger
  1. A soft-headed or foolish person; an idiot.

    archaic · countable
  2. A soft drink.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.

    countable
  4. A soft sound or part of a sound.

    colloquial · countable
  5. A piece of software.

    countable · dated · nonstandard · rare
  6. Banknotes.

    UK · obsolete · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Germanic *samþuz /*samftuz Proto-Indo-European *-yos Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *-jaz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) Old English sōfte Middle English softe English 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.

adv/sɒft/Received-Pronunciation/sɔːft/Ireland, Multicultural-London-English, Received-Pronunciation/sɔft/General-American/sɑft/cot-caught-merger
  1. Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

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

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.