soft

Pronunciation: /sɔft/

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. adjective yielding readily to pressure or weight
  2. adjective compassionate and kind; conciliatory
  3. adjective (of sound) relatively low in volume

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.

In classic literature

Semantic network

Similar
overstuffed, cottony, spongy, velvet
Opposite (antonyms)
hard

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