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Glite Dictionary
🌅 Gentle appearance 🪨 Easy to shape 🤗 Gentle behavior 📉 Economic weakness 🙍 Lack of toughness 🌤️ Mild weather 🤫 Quiet sound
softness

softness

1 7.0
A period when the economy is weak and people buy less
  • noun
  • /ˈsɔːftnəs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : debilidad (económica)
  • No, they're simply paying the price for too many years of softness.
  • economic softness
  • softness in the market
  • continued softness

I'm seeing with like right now, I, I'm seeing some softness in self storage.

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Examples

  • Many companies are reporting softness in their sales figures this quarter due to economic uncertainty.

  • This is likely to lead to softness in industrial production too.

    Blog text (15)

  • Then after we see demand go down, we have to see that softness in labor.

  • With the softness in the economy and the turmoil in the world, there is a possibility that this election will break our way during the closing days, as happened in 1980.

    Blog text (27)

  • What Neil Told Us—according to Neil, the sole reason for their exit was the softness in the June/July numbers.

    Blog text (31)

  • Continued softness in recent data—from purchasing managers' sentiment and industrial output to retail sales and exports—has heightened the anxiety.

    Blog text (1)

  • The analyst noted a significant softness in consumer spending during the winter months.

  • Investors are concerned about the softness in demand in the manufacturing sector, leading to reduced production.

Synonyms

recession
vssoftness
  • Specialized
858 4.6

A period when a country's business activity and jobs go down

is the broader market weakness marked by reduced demand not specific measures
decline
vssoftness
439 3.9

A gradual loss in amount, quality, or value

applies specifically to mild economic weakness marked by lower demand
downturn
vssoftness
69 4.4

A period when the economy or business gets worse

is about weaker demand and lower activity rather than just a general fall
slump
vssoftness
65 4.6

A period when business or the economy falls a lot

means a milder, demand-driven weakness rather than a sharp collapse
downswing
vssoftness
1 6.1

A time when people buy and sell less and the economy slows

focuses on weakness as reduced demand rather than the directional movement

Antonyms

expansion
241 3.3

An increase in size, amount, or range

boom
214 2.8

A time of fast growth in the economy and more jobs

How Weak

depression
  • Specialized
39 4.0
slump
65 4.6
softness
  • Specialized
1 7.0
recession
  • Specialized
858 4.6
slowdown
53 3.7

Surface Forms

softness singular
softnesses plural

Morphology

softness = soft (semi-transparent) = soft + ness

While 'softness' is a standard derivation from 'soft', the specific economic meaning is not immediately obvious.

Etymology

Softness comes from the old word soft plus the ending -ness meaning 'quality', and soft can also mean 'not firm' or 'weak', like something that gives under pressure. So softness in business talk means the 'quality of being weak or in decline' in demand or activity.