📕 With paper cover 📕 A paperback

softbound

3.6

A book with a thin paper cover rather than a hard cover

noun
/ˈsɔftˌbaʊnd/

: libro de tapa blanda

She bought a softbound version of the textbook for her class.

Examples

The bookstore has a special sale on softbound books this week.
$75.00 per volume (hardbound); $29.95 per volume (softbound).

Academic text (1990)
I prefer to read novels in the softbound edition because they are lighter to carry.

Synonyms

paperback

vssoftbound

88 1.3

A book with a soft paper cover, not a hard cover

is the same meaning but is the more common single-word name

paperback book

vssoftbound

3 1.4

A book with a soft paper cover instead of a hard cover

is the same sense but is the shorter colloquial expression

softback

vssoftbound

1 2.8

A book with a flexible paper cover, not a hardback

is the same meaning but often appears as the standard label

soft-cover

vssoftbound

1 3.3

A book with thin, flexible paper on the outside rather than a hard cover

is the same concept but tends to be the conventional single-word form

softback book

vssoftbound

2.1

A book with a soft paper cover instead of a hard cover

is the same idea but usually treated as the main technical term

soft-cover book

vssoftbound

2.5

A book with a flexible paper cover instead of a hard cover

is the same meaning but is the preferred name in plain usage

Antonyms

hardcover

34 2.3

A book with thick, stiff covers instead of a thin paper cover

How Flexible

pamphlet

79 3.1

paperback

88 1.3

softbound

3.6

hardback

8 3.2

Surface Forms

softbound singular

softbounds plural

Morphology

softbound = soft + bound (transparent) = soft + bound

The compound 'softbound' clearly names a book with a soft cover; the nominal sense is a direct naming from the adjective compound.

Etymology

The word softbound is made of soft and bound. Soft means 'not hard' and bound comes from 'bind', which means 'to tie or fasten', so a softbound is a book 'bound' with a 'soft' paper cover — basically a paperback.