A soft hyphen, or SHY, is the Unicode character U+00AD. It marks a preferred optional division inside a word and normally has no visible shape when that division is unused. Selecting it invokes the language-appropriate presentation for an intraword break, which can involve more than adding one hyphen.[ref]
Unicode Line Breaking Algorithm by the Unicode Consortium. §5.4: invisible format character and language-dependent break presentation
For example, a suitable renderer can show
ex followed by SHY and ample as example on one line, or as ex- and ample on successive lines. The visible hyphen then belongs to the chosen layout. In languages with spelling changes at a division, the layout implementation may also need to modify the divided parts.[ref]Unicode Line Breaking Algorithm by the Unicode Consortium. §5.4: spelling changes and responsibility of the line-breaking implementation
A soft hyphen supplies a hyphenation opportunity; it does not force the line breaking algorithm to use it. The algorithm can retain the unbroken word when its typesetting line width and paragraph cost permit that choice.
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