soften
verb
Simple meaning
Make less severe or harsh.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sahfuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɑfən
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Make (images or sounds) soft or softer
“This liquid will soften your laundry.”
intransitive
To become soft or softer.
“The bread will soften if you pour some liquid on it.”
Make less severe or harsh
transitive
To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make (images or sounds) soft or softer
Used this way, soften is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“This liquid will soften your laundry.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- 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 soften
- “This liquid will soften your laundry.”verb
- “The bread will soften if you pour some liquid on it.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The process of becoming softer.
A substance added to another to make it less hard.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A substance (such as sodium chloride) that lessens the hardness of water by replacing calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions and so gives the water more efficient sudsing power.
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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.