softness
part of speech
noun (softness — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) Softness is being soft to touch: easy to press, smooth and gentle, like a pillow or a kitten's fur. tree →
2) Softness is being quiet or gentle in sound or light: the softness of her voice, the softness of candlelight. tree →
3) Softness is also gentleness and kindness in a person; sometimes it means being too weak or not strict enough. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons softness is a property of materials, compared with hardness (a material is soft if it is easily scratched or squashed). In stories it describes feelings, fabrics, voices and light. Phrases: "the softness of", "softness of heart".
examples
- I love the softness of my new blanket. tree →
- We tested the softness of different materials by pressing them. tree →
- The softness of her voice calmed the baby. tree →
- Talc is famous for its softness; you can scratch it with a fingernail. tree →
- The softness of the morning light woke me gently. tree →
- The coach said his softness with the team made them lazy. tree →
- The kitten's fur has an amazing softness. tree →
- In spite of the softness of the bed, he was very glad when morning came at last. tree →
note
Uncountable: no plural. Formed from soft + -ness. Opposite: hardness, roughness. In science, "soft" means easily scratched or shaped, not just nice to touch.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «softness» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.