soft
/sɔft/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.68 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
adj
adj
Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
adj
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "[…] 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 […]"
- "Polish the silver with a soft cloth to avoid scratching."
- "soft silk; a soft skin"
- "They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /sɔft/
- British English: /sɒft/
Usage
- Slang
- British usage
- Colloquial
- Dated
- Informal
- Archaic
- Countable
- Uncountable
Inflected Forms
softer (comparative)
softest (superlative)
softs (plural)
more soft (comparative)
most soft (superlative)