# soft

> English word · Adjective · IPA /sɒft/ · frequency rank #2,130

## Definitions
1. Easily giving way under pressure.
2. Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
3. Quiet.
4. Gentle.
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.
12. Voiced; sonant; lenis.
13. Voiceless.
14. Palatalized.
15. Excessively empathetic or concerned about others’ wellbeing.
16. Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
17. Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
18. Foolish.
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.
22. Agreeable to the senses.
23. Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
24. Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
25. Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
26. Emulated with software; not physically real.
27. Not likely to cause addiction.
28. Not containing alcohol.
29. Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
30. Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
31. Softcore
32. Mild, tame, moderate; far from intense or excluding harsh elements.
33. Of paper: unsized.
34. Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.
35. Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.
36. Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.
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.

## Easily confused with
- **son** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-son)
- **sox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sox)
- **sol** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sol)
- **soy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-soy)
- **sow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sow)
- **SOS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sos)
- **som** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-som)
- **SPF** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-spf)
- **sop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sop)
- **soi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-soi)
- **sou** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sou)
- **sor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sor)
- **sot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sot)
- **SST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sst)
- **sov** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sov)
- **some** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-some)
- **soon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-soon)
- **song** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-song)
- **sort** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sort)
- **sold** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-sold)

## Common misspellings (6)
`osft`, `sfot`, `sofft`, `softt`, `sotf`, `ssoft`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/soft