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Glite Dictionary
so to speak

so to speak

80 5.6
As a way of saying something that is not exactly true
  • idiom
translation icon : por así decirlo
  • People do as best they can, so to speak, with the cultural tools they have at their disposal.
  • image, so to speak

Were miniseries in fashion so to speak previously?

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Examples

  • Why, I've always considered you one of the family, so to speak.

    The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

  • Freedom begins, so to speak, where the law is silent.

  • And is that how they reach your door, so to speak, is through a cold e-mail.

  • Kind of something from nothing, so to speak, right?

  • I just let the leg fall back into place, so to speak, without any special drive.

  • And he has, so to speak, done it with a couple of other boys too.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • It's a renaissance, so to speak, of the artist's intent.

  • We've been able to keep this in the family, so to speak.

    The China Syndrome (1979)

  • How is Wall Street getting ready for the crash, so to speak, when QE goes away?

  • He found a solution to the problem, so to speak, by simplifying the process.

Synonyms

as it were
vsso to speak
  • Formal
64 6.9

To say something is not exact but gives a useful example

is used to show a figurative description rather than a literal statement
as we say
vsso to speak
23 5.6

To show that a phrase is not meant exactly but is a common way to say something

is used to indicate nonliteral description by the speaker rather than group convention

Antonyms

literally
246 3.5

In the exact meaning of the words, not as an exaggeration

How Figurative

so to speak
80 5.6
as we say
23 5.6
in other words
275 2.7
literally
  • Informal
815 3.5

Surface Forms

so to speak positive

Morphology

so + to + speak

The phrase parses compositionally as 'so' (in that way) + 'to speak' (to say), yielding the clear sense 'in that manner of speaking' used to mark a figurative or non-literal remark. This pattern has close parallels in many languages (e.g. Spanish 'por así decirlo', French 'pour ainsi dire'), so a B1 learner who knows the words can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

So to speak comes from the idea of adding a short note to your words to show you are not speaking literally but giving an image. So when someone says so to speak, they are warning that the phrase is a way to describe something, 'not exactly true' but useful as a picture.