Soft material added to something for comfort, protection, or to fill out shape; can also mean unnecessary words added to writing.
From 'pad,' which comes from Low German or Dutch 'pad,' originally meaning a path or sole of a foot, but later applied to cushioning material placed in shoes. The word evolved to mean any soft filling.
In writing, 'padding' refers to fluff words—but professional writers have a sneaky trick: they add padding strategically to hit minimum word counts, which is basically how word counts became a game between writers and teachers!
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