emollient

1. 1.

   toiletry consisting of any of various substances in the form of a thick liquid that have a soothing and moisturizing effect when applied to the skin

   Synonymscreamointment

   Broadertoiletry

   Narrowercold creamhand creamlanolinnardsunscreen

1. 1.

   having a softening or soothing effect especially to the skin

   Synonymsdemulcentsalvingsoftening

   Similarsoft

Other forms of emollient

plural

emollients·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about emollient

What does emollient mean?

emollient means "toiletry consisting of any of various substances in the form of a thick liquid that have a soothing and moisturizing effect when applied to the skin". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in emollient?

emollient has 3 syllables: e-mol-lient. The stress falls on "e".

What is another word for emollient?

Close synonyms include cream, ointment, demulcent, salving, softening. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is emollient a common word?

emollient is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.