soft

/sɒft/

//sɒft// adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"soft" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“soft” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,130. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,130
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Easily giving way under pressure.

Corpus desk

Index EN-soft · soft · English

soft · rank #2,130 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,130
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH shopping

Nearest frequency peer: shopping (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “soft”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “soft” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

soft vs son
50% similar
soft vs sox
50% similar
soft vs sol
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

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

Where “soft” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).softlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “shopping” (#2,129), “stuck” (#2,131), “shared” (#2,128). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around soft (IPA /sɒft/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #2,130 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 37 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for soft, with forms such as "osft", "sfot", and "sofft". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "son", "sox", "sol", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

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… The correct English form is soft, spelled S-O-F-T.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how soft appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. My head sank easily into the soft pillow.
  2. My favorite Greek cheese is the creamy, sheepy manouri: delicately scented and almost spreadable, it’s like a softer, pudgier feta.

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

blando(Español)mou(Français)weich(Deutsch)mole(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osft
  • sfot
  • sofft
  • softt
  • sotf
  • ssoft

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of soft - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

osft2sfot2sofft1softt1sotf2ssoft1
Edit distance from "soft"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

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 adjective, "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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "soft", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

loan#2,118joke#2,117hero#2,114flow#2,111

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

appeal6 variantsemail6 variantslegs6 variantstrees6 variants

What to do next

You've looked up "soft". Here's where to go from here.

  • "soft" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "son". View pair
  • 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #2,130 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list