Soup is mostly a liquid cuisine that is produced by blending meat or vegetable ingredients with stock, milk, or water and served warm or hot (but may also be cool or cold). Hot soups are further differentiated by the extraction of tastes from solid components in liquids in a pot, resulting in a broth. Soups and stews are similar, and there may not be a clear distinction between the two in some circumstances; nonetheless, soups have more liquid (broth) than stews.

Soups are divided into two categories in traditional French cuisine: clear soups and thick soups. The terms bouillon and consommé are used to classify transparent soups in France. Purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch; bisques are thickened with cream and puréed seafood or vegetables; cream soups can be thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter, and cream. Rice, lentils, flour, and grains are also widely used to thicken soups and broths; many popular soups also include pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, pig's trotters, and bird's nests.

Fruit soups, dessert soups, pulse soups like split pea, cold soups, and different forms of soup are some of the others.