softening

Other forms of softening

plural

softenings·

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 softening

What does softening mean?

softening means "the process of becoming softer". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in softening?

softening has 3 syllables: sof-te-ning. The stress falls on "sof". In IPA it is /ˈsɔfənɪŋ/.

What is another word for softening?

Close synonyms include demulcent, emollient, salving. 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 softening a common word?

softening is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.