A
soft drink is a
drink that contains no (or very little)
alcohol.
This definition needs to be more specific -- orange juice has no alcohol, and yet it normally isn't called a soft drink
In the US, soft drink denotes a carbonated? drink, regionally known in the North as "pop", in the South and California as "soda", in between as "soda pop", and in Atlanta? as "coke". (Atlanta is home to the [Coca-Cola Corporation]?).
In German, soft drinks are known as limo, the German word for lemonade? but in America lemonade is just a beverage, not a soft drink.
The Swedish läsk means carbonated soft drink, and the Swedish word for American lemonade is "lemon drink" (citrondricka) or "lemon water" (citronvatten).
In Australia, "soft drink" almost always refers to carbonated beverages. "Lemonade" can refer to "lemon drink", but most of the time means clear soft drink (i.e. Sprite, Mountain Dew, etc.)
In the United Kingdom the term applies to carbonated drinks ("pop") and non carbonated drinks made from concentrates ("squash").
Some famous soft drinks are:
- Coca Cola
- [Dansk Citronvand]? (Denmark: carbonated lemonade)
- [Jolly Cola]? (Denmark, similar to Pepsi)
- Irn Bru (Scotland)
- Julmust (Sweden)
- [Mountain Dew]?
- Pepsi
- [Root beer]?
- Sasparilla?
- Sockerdricka (Sweden, like Sprite but without the lemon-lime flavour)
- Sprite?
- Svagdricka? (Sweden, imagine a very sweet stout with (almost) no alcohol)
- [Red Bull]? (Austria, UK, Australia) isn't Red Bull available just about everywhere???
- Almdudler? (Austria, called a lemonade but made with cabbage and flowers)