Phrase guide

soft tennis

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A variant of tennis, developed in Japan, differing in the tennis ball used, from regular tennis (lawn tennis), having a softer rubber ball.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Phono-semantic matching of Japanese ソフトテニス (sofuto tenisu), itself a wasei eigo (和製英語; pseudo-anglicism) derived from soft + tenis.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Italian: soft tennis — variant of tennis
  • Japanese: ソフトテニス (sofutotenisu) — variant of tennis
  • Japanese: ソフテニ (sofuteni) — variant of tennis
  • Japanese: 軟式テニス (nanshiki tenisu) — variant of tennis
  • Japanese: 軟式庭球 (nanshiki teikyū) — variant of tennis
  • Korean: 소프트 테니스 (sopeuteu teniseu) — variant of tennis
  • Korean: 연식정구 (yeonsikjeonggu) — variant of tennis