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soft

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

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Letters

4 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "soft", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "soft" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "soft" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

soft is anEnglishadj. It means: Easily giving way under pressure. Pronounced /sɒft/. It ranks #2,130 in English word frequency. Often confused with son and sox.

Key facts for soft
PropertyValue
Headwordsoft
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/sɒft/
Letters4
Frequency rank#2,130
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of soft in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for soft is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɒft/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,130 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 37 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for soft, with forms such as "osft", "sfot", and "sofft". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "son", "sox", "sol", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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 *se… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is soft, spelled S-O-F-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Easily giving way under pressure.
  2. 2
    Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
  3. 3
    Quiet.
  4. 4
    Gentle.
  5. 5
    Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
  6. 6
    Gentle in action or motion; easy.
  7. 7
    Limp, weak.
  8. 8
    Weak in character; impressible.
  9. 9
    Requiring little or no effort; easy.
  10. 10
    Not bright or intense.
  11. 11
    Having a slight angle from straight.
  12. 12
    Voiced; sonant; lenis.
  13. 13
    Voiceless.
  14. 14
    Palatalized.
  15. 15
    Excessively empathetic or concerned about others’ wellbeing.
  16. 16
    Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
  17. 17
    Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
  18. 18
    Foolish.
  19. 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. 20
    Physically or emotionally weak.
  21. 21
    Effeminate.
  22. 22
    Agreeable to the senses.
  23. 23
    Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
  24. 24
    Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
  25. 25
    Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
  26. 26
    Emulated with software; not physically real.
  27. 27
    Not likely to cause addiction.
  28. 28
    Not containing alcohol.
  29. 29
    Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
  30. 30
    Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
  31. 31
    Softcore
  32. 32
    Mild, tame, moderate; far from intense or excluding harsh elements.
  33. 33
    Of paper: unsized.
  34. 34
    Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.
  35. 35
    Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.
  36. 36
    Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.
  37. 37
    Attracted to or emotionally involved with someone.

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

non-abrasivefluffygentlelightneshquietmeekmildwimpyneshdaftfoolishsillystupidcushionyflabbyflaccidflexiblesoftspongymellowmalleablemoldablepliabletenderyieldingzate

Antonyms

hardresistantsolidstonyabrasivescratchyharshroughstrongantonym(s) ofloudfirmstricttoughantonym(s) ofsensibleunyielding

This word in other languages

Spanish(Español)Portuguese(Português)French(Français)German(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: osft,sfot,sofft,softt,sotf,ssoft

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for soft

Misspelling Variants of "soft"

osft4sfot4sofft5softt5sotf4ssoft5
Misspelling Variants of "soft"

Frequency rank: #2,130 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "soft"?
"soft" is spelled S-O-F-T. The IPA pronunciation is /sɒft/.
What does "soft" mean?
As an adj, "soft" means: Easily giving way under pressure.
What words are commonly confused with "soft"?
"soft" is commonly confused with "son", "sox", "sol". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "soft"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "soft" is /sɒft/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "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-... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.