Sodden means thoroughly soaked with water, so saturated that something feels heavy and waterlogged. When your shoes become sodden after walking through puddles in a rainstorm, they squish with every step and feel like they weigh twice as much as usual. A sodden towel left on the bathroom floor is completely drenched and dripping, waterlogged through and through.

The word suggests more than ordinary wetness. A field might be wet after a light rain, but it becomes sodden after days of downpour, when the ground can't absorb any more water. Sodden clothes cling heavily to your body. Sodden cereal that's been sitting in milk too long loses all its crunch and becomes mushy and unappetizing.

You might also encounter the word in phrases like “rain-sodden” or “tear-sodden,” which emphasize just how thoroughly soaked something has become. The word carries a sense of being weighed down by all that absorbed water, like a sponge that can't hold another drop.