soft

English

/sɔft/, /sɑft/, /sɒft/, /sɔːft/

adj
Definitions
  • Easily giving way under pressure.
  • (of cloth or similar material) Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
  • (of a sound) Quiet.
  • Gentle.
  • Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
  • Gentle in action or motion; easy.
  • Weak in character; impressible.
  • Requiring little or no effort; easy.
  • Not bright or intense.
  • Having a slight angle from straight.
  • (linguistics) Voiced; sonant.
  • (linguistics) voiceless
  • (linguistics) palatalized
  • (slang) Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
  • (of water) Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
  • (UK) Foolish.
  • (physics) 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)
  • (of a person) Physically or emotionally weak.
  • Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
  • (UK) Effeminate.
  • Agreeable to the senses.
  • Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
  • (photography) Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
  • (computing) Emulated with software; not physically real.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English softe (yielding, easy, soft, gentle) inherited from Old English sōfte inherited from *samftī (level, even, smooth, soft, gentle) derived from Proto-Indo-European *semptio-.

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*semptio-

Gloss

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms