spongy

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈspʌndʒi/ UK /ˈspʌndʒi/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
soft, porous, and absorbent like a sponge

The cake had a light, spongy texture that melted on the tongue.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · soft, porous, and absorbent... porous absorbent springysquishysoft cushiony

Opposites

hard dense firm solid

Word family

Derived forms sponginess

Related forms sponge

Etymology

From sponge + -y; sponge comes from Old English sponge/spunge, from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek spongiá ('sponge').

spongia Latin spongiá Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# spongy

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈspʌndʒi/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈspʌndʒi/

## Meanings
1. soft, porous, and absorbent like a sponge

## Examples
- The cake had a light, spongy texture that melted on the tongue.

## Synonyms
- porous
- absorbent
- springy
- squishy
- soft
- cushiony

## Antonyms
- hard
- dense
- firm
- solid

## Derived Forms
- sponginess

## Related Forms
- sponge

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: spongia
- Root: spongiá

## Etymology
From sponge + -y; sponge comes from Old English sponge/spunge, from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek spongiá ('sponge').

## AI Etymology
Spongy comes from sponge + -y; sponge comes from Old English sponge/spunge, from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek spongiá ('sponge'). The historical chain includes Latin spongia and Ancient Greek spongiá. Older glosses in the chain include "sponge", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, spongy is best read as compound, suffixal formation, and borrowing, yielding an English adjective shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as an adjective, with the sense "soft, porous, and absorbent like a sponge". English derivatives include sponginess; related forms include sponge. The result is an English adjective whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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