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
-
Haden, one of the few gay people in hard-core music (and certainly the most fabulous one), has found the intersection between punk and pride.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
21 Apr. 2026
-
The filmmakers travel through Roma villages in the nation’s countryside —hard-core Fidesz strongholds — to uncover a wide network of bribery and blackmail.—
Steven Zeitchik,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The illicit chatbots allegedly produced pornographic images.—
Cerys Davies,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Pamela Martin, 44, and her boyfriend Christopher O’Kane, 41, both pleaded guilty in March to three counts of making an indecent image of a child, two counts of distributing an indecent image of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image and publishing an obscene article.—
Christine Pelisek,
PEOPLE,
28 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
But the specific French dispensation—the idea that a man’s erotic life exists outside the moral world of his other obligations, that the wife and the mistress are a civilized arrangement, that desire is sovereign—this mythology did not make the crossing with me, or did not survive it intact.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 May 2026
-
The Florida native, who studied sculpture in college and has an academic interest in erotic art and kitsch, spent 15 years with Playboy (partly as a Cyber Girl, the virtual equivalent of the in-print Playmate), and joined OnlyFans in 2020 before purchasing the home she’s dubbed Ho Château.—
Zoey Goto,
Architectural Digest,
6 May 2026
Adjective
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It is estimated that, based on measures of blood glucose, lipids, and other parameters, less than 12% of the adult American population can even be said to metabolically healthy.—
Christopher Duggan,
STAT,
27 Mar. 2026
-
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
Adjective
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Director Chloé Robichaud presents a strong case for bringing it back with her sexy and funny Sundance-award-winning remake of a 1970 film.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
7 May 2026
-
Consider this the library cart’s sexy cousin.—
Kate McGregor,
Architectural Digest,
6 May 2026
Adjective
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Space plants according to their mature width, approximately 12-18 inches apart.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
4 May 2026
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Formulated with mature skin in mind, the primer is packed with hydrating ingredients like shea butter, vitamin E, squalane, and aloe vera.—
Isabel Garcia,
PEOPLE,
4 May 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 9 May. 2026.
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