"soft hyphen" meaning in English

See soft hyphen in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: soft hyphens [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} soft hyphen (plural soft hyphens)
  1. (computing, typography) A generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed. Synonyms: discretionary hyphen Translations (a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed): weiches Trennzeichen [neuter] (German), bedingter Trennstrich [masculine] (German), weicher Trennstrich [masculine] (German), bedingtes Trennzeichen [neuter] (German), puha kötőjel (Hungarian), puha elválasztójel (Hungarian)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soft hyphens",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "soft hyphen (plural soft hyphens)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Typography",
          "orig": "en:Typography",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed."
      ],
      "id": "en-soft_hyphen-en-noun-SlvcTlp9",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "typography",
          "typography"
        ],
        [
          "invisible",
          "invisible"
        ],
        [
          "text",
          "text"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "hyphenation",
          "hyphenation"
        ],
        [
          "line break",
          "line break"
        ],
        [
          "reflow",
          "reflow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing, typography) A generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "discretionary hyphen"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "media",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "publishing",
        "sciences",
        "typography"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "weiches Trennzeichen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "bedingter Trennstrich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "weicher Trennstrich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "bedingtes Trennzeichen"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "lang_code": "hu",
          "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
          "word": "puha kötőjel"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "lang_code": "hu",
          "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
          "word": "puha elválasztójel"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "soft hyphen"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soft hyphens",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "soft hyphen (plural soft hyphens)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "en:Computing",
        "en:Typography"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "typography",
          "typography"
        ],
        [
          "invisible",
          "invisible"
        ],
        [
          "text",
          "text"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "hyphenation",
          "hyphenation"
        ],
        [
          "line break",
          "line break"
        ],
        [
          "reflow",
          "reflow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing, typography) A generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "media",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "publishing",
        "sciences",
        "typography"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "discretionary hyphen"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "weiches Trennzeichen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "bedingter Trennstrich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "weicher Trennstrich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "bedingtes Trennzeichen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
      "word": "puha kötőjel"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed",
      "word": "puha elválasztójel"
    }
  ],
  "word": "soft hyphen"
}

Download raw JSONL data for soft hyphen meaning in English (3.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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