soft drink

• softdrink

So called in contrast to strong alcoholic beverages, which are "hard liquors".

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

soft drink (plural soft drinks)

1. Any non-alcoholic drink that is carbonated, and usually also sweet. (In this sense, juice, milk, tea and coffee are not soft drinks.)
2. (broadly) Any non-alcoholic drink.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "And then they run to him with whisky, and so they teach him to rely on the bottle and you get another case of a drunken medium. I know them. You keep off it, Tom!" "Yes, one of our trade should stick to soft drinks."

• hard liquor

• coke (most common term in the Southeastern US)[1][2]
• fizzy drink
• lemonade
• pop (most common term in Canada and the upper West and upper Midwest of the US, including western WI, most of IL including Chicago, MI, IN, OH, WV and western PA)[1][2]
• soda (most common term in HI, CA, eastern MO, southwestern IL, eastern WI and New England)[1][2]
• soda pop
• See also Thesaurus:soft drink

• cola