as in hard-core
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Recent Examples of soft-core
For individuals, soft-core KPIs might include the employee’s personal brand reputation, visibility on professional platforms or involvement in external community projects.
—
Filomena Di Luise, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025
The film felt like a dispatch from a cinematic world that no longer existed — streamed quietly into a culture now fluent in soft-core stylization but less interested in its emotional stakes.
—arkansasonline.com, 10 July 2025
This is the character most relatable to the man who founded a media company whose sole purpose was to manipulate women into taking their tops off and engage in soft-core pornography on camera and cut them out of the earnings.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 7 Dec. 2024
Ranking Coppola’s 23 features — his 1962 soft-core Tonight for Sure is not included, nor is his misbegotten New York Stories short feature or the Disney attraction Captain EO — was a difficult proposition.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
The agencies that dole out state money to public charger companies — the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission — have taken a soft-core approach to holding the companies responsible.
—Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2024
Their intercourse isn’t soft-core like Bound but features Marian’s shy, sly, self-consciousness.
—Armond White, National Review, 31 July 2024
Plastered around New York City, the soft-core promo had pedestrians doing double takes.
—Mankaprr Conteh, Rolling Stone, 4 Oct. 2023
Filomena Di Luise, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025
The film felt like a dispatch from a cinematic world that no longer existed — streamed quietly into a culture now fluent in soft-core stylization but less interested in its emotional stakes.
—arkansasonline.com, 10 July 2025
This is the character most relatable to the man who founded a media company whose sole purpose was to manipulate women into taking their tops off and engage in soft-core pornography on camera and cut them out of the earnings.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 7 Dec. 2024
Ranking Coppola’s 23 features — his 1962 soft-core Tonight for Sure is not included, nor is his misbegotten New York Stories short feature or the Disney attraction Captain EO — was a difficult proposition.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
The agencies that dole out state money to public charger companies — the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission — have taken a soft-core approach to holding the companies responsible.
—Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2024
Their intercourse isn’t soft-core like Bound but features Marian’s shy, sly, self-consciousness.
—Armond White, National Review, 31 July 2024
Plastered around New York City, the soft-core promo had pedestrians doing double takes.
—Mankaprr Conteh, Rolling Stone, 4 Oct. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for soft-core
Adjective
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Whites abound throughout the larger Médoc, but Listrac-Médoc is a hard-core red wine zone, so it was considered daring to produce a white here.—
Mike DeSimone,
Robb Report,
16 Feb. 2026
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Not all posts were hard-core politics.—
Bart Jansen,
USA Today,
6 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Millions of children were watching and the lyrics were purely pornographic.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
13 Feb. 2026
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The startup has faced a global backlash over its Grok chatbot, which was allowed to generate nonconsensual pornographic images of women and children for weeks before the team stepped in to stop it.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
11 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The former Disney star has a new TV series (an erotic thriller), a new love, and a new sense of herself.—
Nicola Dall'Asen,
Allure,
5 Feb. 2026
-
The low-fi practical effects and erotic hijinks hit just the right tone of silly and sentimental.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
4 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
For many readers and critics, the perception was that Mansfield was almost writing children’s fiction, since most of her stories are deceptively easy to read, although her themes are entirely adult in both form and content.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Dec. 2025
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Justin Vernon’s midwestern charm and pliable falsetto has always endeared him to indie-rock dads raised on Michael McDonald, but starting a family himself between Bon Iver projects turned this year’s Sable, Fable into a deep examination of the fatherly adult contemporary figure in popular music.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
2 Dec. 2025
Adjective
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Inside Victoria’s Secret’s turnaround Under retail veteran Hillary Super, Victoria’s Secret is leaning back into its identity as a fun and sexy brand after controversy in the 2010s.—
Diane Brady,
Fortune,
4 Feb. 2026
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Shop more of my favorite sexy florals and boozy gourmands, below.—
Reece Andavolgyi,
InStyle,
4 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Once fully mature, this blueberry bush can yield 3 to 5 pounds of fruit.—
SJ McShane,
Martha Stewart,
16 Feb. 2026
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The 2025 world champion returns to her second Olympic Games with a fresh, mature perspective from a two-year hiatus and has already helped the United States to a gold medal in the team event.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The content of its productions has included legitimate theater, vaudeville, burlesque, striptease, movies (many X-rated), classical music and jazz as well as occasional forays into boxing, bodybuilding and politics.—
Dan Kelly,
Kansas City Star,
21 Sep. 2025
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For the first seven years of the rating system (1969-1975), nearly half of the top films (33 of 70) were R- or X-rated.—
Tom Brueggemann,
IndieWire,
26 July 2024
Cite this Entry
“Soft-core.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/soft-core. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
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