"soften" meaning in English

See soften in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ˈsɒfən/ [UK], /ˈsɔfən/ [US] Audio: en-us-soften.ogg [US] Forms: soften [canonical], softens [third-person, singular], softened [past], softened [past, participle], softening [present, participle]
enPR: sŏf′en [UK], sôf′en [US] Etymology: soft + -en Etymology templates: {{ety-suffix|soft|en}} soft + -en Head templates: {{verb}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you soften something, then you make it soft or softer.
    Sense id: simple-soften-en-verb--jicLyVq
  2. When you soften your words, you make it less harsh and less critical.
    Sense id: simple-soften-en-verb-QLYJuDJq
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Categories (other): Terms suffixed with -en
{
  "categories": [
    {
      "kind": "other",
      "name": "Terms suffixed with -en",
      "parents": [],
      "source": "w"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "soft",
        "2": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "soft + -en",
      "name": "ety-suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "soft + -en",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soften",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softens",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softened",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softened",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softening",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "harden"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "You will have to use this to beat the flour to soften it before we can use it to make our cake."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you soften something, then you make it soft or softer."
      ],
      "id": "simple-soften-en-verb--jicLyVq"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Seeing that she was about to cry, I softened my tone and criticism about her project."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When you soften your words, you make it less harsh and less critical."
      ],
      "id": "simple-soften-en-verb-QLYJuDJq"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɒfən/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sŏf′en",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɔfən/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sôf′en",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-soften.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "soften"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "Terms suffixed with -en"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "soft",
        "2": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "soft + -en",
      "name": "ety-suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "soft + -en",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soften",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softens",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softened",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softened",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "softening",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "harden"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "You will have to use this to beat the flour to soften it before we can use it to make our cake."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you soften something, then you make it soft or softer."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Seeing that she was about to cry, I softened my tone and criticism about her project."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When you soften your words, you make it less harsh and less critical."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɒfən/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sŏf′en",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɔfən/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sôf′en",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-soften.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "soften"
}

Download raw JSONL data for soften meaning in English (1.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-28 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c7bdf0e and 5c11237). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.