What does "soup" mean?
Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food value, flavor, and texture.
Soup
/sup/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food value, flavor, and texture.
- Grammar: soup is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: aerospace, aerosphere, air, air hole.
- Useful contrasts: dry food, solid food, solids.
- Usage evidence: First beat the eggs and add them to the soup.
How to use "soup"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "soup" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "soup" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "soup" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "soup" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "soup" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "aerospace" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "soup", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food value, flavor, and texture. countable, uncountable
"Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup."
- 2 Alternative form of sup (“a sip; a small amount of food or drink”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 liquid food especially of meat or fish or vegetable stock often containing pieces of solid food wordnet
- 4 Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food value, flavor, and texture.; A serving of such a dish, typically in a bowl. countable
- 5 an unfortunate situation wordnet
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food value, flavor, and texture.; The liquid part of such a dish; the broth. uncountable
- 7 any composition having a consistency suggestive of soup wordnet
- 8 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"The cleanup job would turn out to be possibly second only to body-recovery duty in terms of being a job that nobody wanted to get assigned to. Imagine, for a moment, a thick soup of oil, paper, ink, clothing, raw meat and other fresh provisions, and worse, that had all been left to collect together in semi-warm water, all enclosed in a large metal container that had then been subjected to heating by first fire and then repeated warm Hawaiian days, and then left to ferment for over a month, and then with most of the water drained away and all the remaining solid and semi-liquid mass collecting together in pools and heaps across multiple decks, still in a relatively-enclosed environment."
- 9 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; Thick fog or cloud (also pea soup). countable, figuratively, slang, uncountable
- 10 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; Nitroglycerine or gelignite, especially when used for safe-cracking. US, countable, figuratively, slang, uncountable
- 11 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; Dope or cocaine. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"[…]who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup[…]"
- 12 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; Processing chemicals into which film is dipped, such as developer. countable, figuratively, uncountable
- 13 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; A liquid or gelatinous substrate, especially the mixture of organic compounds that is believed to have played a role in the origin of life on Earth. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"primordial soup"
- 14 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; An unfortunate situation; trouble, problems (a fix, a mess); chaos. UK, countable, figuratively, informal, often, uncountable, with-definite-article
"B. Wickham had also the disposition and general outlook on life of a ticking bomb. In her society you always had the uneasy feeling that something was likely to go off at any moment with a pop. You never knew what she was going to do next or into what murky depths of soup she would carelessly plunge you. [...] “It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.”"
- 15 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; The foamy portion of a wave. countable, figuratively, uncountable
- 16 Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.; Any random starting pattern, typically studied to see what sorts of resultant more stable patterns emerge when evolved over subsequent generations. countable, figuratively, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To feed: to provide with soup or a meal. uncommon
"I'm blessed if I've heard about any thing but kangaroo-tail soup all the while I was at Launceston. They souped me there night and day."
- 2 Alternative form of sup (“to sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 To sweep. obsolete
"He vaunts his voice upon an hired stage, With high-set steps and princely carriage, Now souping in side robes of royalty."
- 4 Rare form of sup (“to take supper”). form-of, rare
"When I cam that tym to the court, I fand my Lord Due of Orkney sitting at his supper. He said I had bene a gret stranger, desyring me to sit down and soup with him. The Erie of Huntly, the justice-clark, and dyvers uthers, wer sitten at the table with him. I said that I had already souped."
- 5 dope (a racehorse) wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 To develop (film) in a (chemical) developing solution.
"That girl Vivienne, by the way, once worked as a secretary in the workshop of The Rotarian, began "souping" her own snapshots at home, went from there to top rank as a New York color photographer specializing in small children […]"
- 7 To proselytize by feeding the impoverished as long as they listen to one's preaching. obsolete
"Was the priest who denounced those books of the National Board as "souping books" the patron of a national school?"
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"First beat the eggs and add them to the soup."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "soup"?
Common synonyms include: aerospace, aerosphere, air, air hole, air pocket, air space.
How do you use "soup" in a sentence?
First beat the eggs and add them to the soup.
How do you pronounce "soup"?
Pronounced /sup/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
The noun is from Middle English soupe, sowpe, from Old French soupe, souppe, sope, from Late Latin suppa (“sopped bread”), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Middle Dutch sope (“broth”)). Doublet of sop and zuppa. See also sup and supper. The verb is from the noun.
Etymology 2
From Middle English soupen, from Old English sūpan (“to sup, sip”), from Proto-Germanic *sūpaną. More at sup.
Etymology 3
From Middle English soupe, from Old English sūpe (“sup; draught”).
Etymology 4
From Middle English swopen, from Old English swāpan (“to sweep”), from Proto-Germanic *swaipaną (“to sweep”). More at sweep.
Etymology 5
From Middle English soupen, suppen, from Anglo-Norman super, from supe, soupe (“soup”) + -er (verb-forming suffix).