Soffit

//ˈsɑ.fɪt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The visible underside of an arch, balcony, beam, cornice, staircase, vault or any other architectural element.

    "From 1945 onwards, deterioration in the condition of the brickwork in the arch soffits was kept under close observation, and in 1951 it was decided that strengthening must be undertaken."

  2. 2
    the underside of a part of a building (such as an arch or overhang or beam etc.) wordnet
  3. 3
    The top point of the inside open section of a pipe or box conduit.

    "The elevation of the pipe soffit is 10.4 meters above mean sea level."

Example

More examples

"The fascia and soffit were made of some newly developed material."

Etymology

From French soffite, from Italian soffitto, from Vulgar Latin *suffīctus, perfect passive participle of Latin suffīgō (“to fasten or fix onto”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.