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soak

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Cover with liquid.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sohk
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsoʊk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Cover with liquid; pour liquid onto

  2. intransitive

    To be saturated with liquid by being immersed in it.

  3. Submerge in a liquid

    “I soaked in the hot tub for an hour.”

  4. transitive

    To immerse in liquid to the point of saturation or thorough permeation.

  5. intransitive

    To penetrate or permeate by saturation.

  6. transitive

    To allow (especially a liquid) to be absorbed; to take in, receive. (usually + up)

noun

  1. An immersion in water etc.

  2. Australia

    A low-lying depression that fills with water after rain.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To be saturated with liquid by being immersed in it.

Used this way, soak is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use soak

  • “I soaked in the hot tub for an hour.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

soak throughsoak overnightwater soaksoak away

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • soakingnounInflected form

    The process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid).

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • soaking upnounCompound term

    A process in which one substance permeates another.

  • soak throughverbCompound term

    Be or become thoroughly soaked or saturated with a liquid.

  • soak upverbCompound term

    Take in, also metaphorically.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.