Dictionary

so-called en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• sōʹkôld' (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈsəʊˌkɔːld/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈsoʊˌkɔld/ (US)

Etymology

From so + called.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) So named; commonly called.
   • The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday became the first major national security agency to offer so-called buyouts to its entire workforce, a CIA spokesperson and two other sources familiar with the offer said, part of President Donald Trump’s broad effort to shrink the federal government and shape it to his agenda. 2025 February 4, Katie Bo Lillis and Kaitlan Collins, “CIA sends ‘buyout’ offers to entire workforce”, in CNN:
   • ... I hadn't met any straight women at the gay bars — a few so called "fag hags" fraternizing with the boys, of course, but ... 2010, Matty McEire, Looking for Sheville, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:
   • the so-called Ising mode
   • About 200 guests were invited and entertained to lunch in the so-called booking hall at Waterloo; the contractors, Spiers & Pond Limited, were much praised for organising the repast, with attendant cloak room facilities, so well in such unfavourable surroundings. 1958 August 14, T. S. Lascelles, “Diamond Jubilee of the Waterloo & City Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 523:
   • Another Canadian example is that of the so-called Halfback Program initiated in the province of Ontario. With this scheme state lottery tickets with which no prizes are won retain 50% of the value of their initial cost […] 1988, Ingrid Coetzee, Gerhard-Mark Van der Waal, Conservation of Culture: Changing Context and Challenges:
2. (ironic, not-comparable) Commonly called by such a name, but false or unfitting.
   • […]dawdling away the hours in the Park as if all the world and its millions of honest hard workers were created solely for the casual diversion of the so-called 'upper' classes,[…] 1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 5:
   • So-called Orthodox synagogues who organized mixed dances in order to raise money for various causes. 2024, David Golinkin, “Is Mixed Dancing Really Forbidden At Weddings?”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 242:
   • These so-called "assistants" are making our jobs harder, not easier!

Forms

Deriveds

so-called dollar

Translations (127)

bo ཟེར་བའི (so named, but wrongly so) · he שנקרא כך (so named) · sh тако̀зва̄нӣ (so named, but wrongly so) · sh takòzvānī (so named, but wrongly so) · da såkaldt (so named, but wrongly so) · bg така́ наре́чен (so named) · hu úgynevezett (so named) · bo ཞེས་བྱ་བ (so named) · ro așa-zis (so named) · pl tak zwany (so named, but wrongly so) · uk так зва́ний (so named) · grc οὕτω ὀνομαζόμενος (so named, but wrongly so) · fr prétendu (so named, but wrongly so) · he כך נקרא (so named) · uk т.з. (so named) · he כביכול used as a conjunctive adverb (so named, but wrongly so) · es supuesto (so named, but wrongly so) · fi niin kutsuttu (so named, but wrongly so) · fi niin sanottu (so named) · de sogenannt (so named) · ko 소위 (so named, but wrongly so) · ka ეგრეთწოდებული (so named) · be т.з. (so named, but wrongly so) · uk т.з. (so named, but wrongly so) · de sogenannt (so named, but wrongly so) · bo ཅེས་བྱ་བ (so named) · cmn 所謂 /所谓 (so named, but wrongly so) · nl zogeheten (so named) · bo ཟེར་བའི (so named) · rsk такволани (so named) · sh takòzvānī (so named) · ja 所謂 (so named) · he not an adjective (so named, but wrongly so) · ka ეგრეთ წოდებული (so named) · nl zogenaamd (so named, but wrongly so) · sl tako imenovan (so named, but wrongly so) · nl zgn. (so named) · it cosiddetto (so named, but wrongly so) · fi niin kutsuttu (so named) · uk так зва́ний (so named, but wrongly so) · sl tako imenovan (so named) · el δήθεν (so named, but wrongly so) · ru т.н. (so named, but wrongly so) · az adlanan (so named) · ru так называ́емый (so named) · ja 所謂 (so named, but wrongly so) · es denominado (so named) · bo ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ (so named) · pt dito (so named, but wrongly so) · hi कहने को (so named, but wrongly so) · mk таканаречен (so named) · he נקרא כך (so named) · ko 이른바 (so named, but wrongly so) · ru т.н. (so named) · vi cái gọi là (so named, but wrongly so) · cmn 所謂 /所谓 (so named) · sv så kallad (so named, but wrongly so) · pl rzekomy (so named, but wrongly so) · be т.з. (so named) · fa به اصطلاح (so named, but wrongly so) · nl zogenaamd (so named) · sd نام نهاد (so named, but wrongly so) · fi muka (so named, but wrongly so) · ckb بە ناو (so named) · pt chamado (so named) · bo གྲག་པའི (so named) · el λεγόμενος (so named) · fr dénommé (so named) · nl zgn. (so named, but wrongly so) · ru так называ́емый (so named, but wrongly so) · sv så kallad (so named) · be так зва́ны (so named, but wrongly so) · fr soi-disant (so named, but wrongly so) · pt suposto (so named, but wrongly so) · es presunto (so named, but wrongly so) · ca dit (so named, but wrongly so) · pl tak zwany (so named) · fa کذایی (so named, but wrongly so) · da såkaldt (so named) · yue 所謂嘅 /所谓嘅 (so named, but wrongly so) · pt dito (so named) · nl zogenoemd (so named) · et nõndanimetatud (so named, but wrongly so) · ko 소위 (so named) · hi बोलने को (so named, but wrongly so) · sq ashtuquajtur (so named, but wrongly so) · pt assim chamado (so named, but wrongly so) · fi niin sanottu (so named, but wrongly so) · cs takzvaný (so named, but wrongly so) · sh тако̀зва̄нӣ (so named) · ro așa-numit (so named) · fa به اصطلاح (so named) · sk takzvaný (so named) · tr sözde (so named, but wrongly so) · bo ཅེས་ཟེར་བ (so named, but wrongly so) · hu úgynevezett (so named, but wrongly so) · bo ཅེས་བྱ་ཞིང (so named) · bg така́ наре́чен (so named, but wrongly so) · el αποκαλούμενος (so named) · nb såkalt (so named) · bo ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ (so named, but wrongly so) · ar مَا يُسَمَّى (so named) · bo གྲག་པའི (so named, but wrongly so) · la nuncupativus (so named) · es dizque (so named, but wrongly so) · ko 이른바 (so named) · el αποκαλούμενος (so named, but wrongly so) · bo ཅེས་བྱ་བ (so named, but wrongly so) · az dırnaqarası (so named, but wrongly so) · ro așa-zis (so named, but wrongly so) · hy այսպես կոչված (so named, but wrongly so) · yi אַזוי גערופֿן (so named, but wrongly so) · pt chamado (so named, but wrongly so) · it cosiddetto (so named) · bo ཅེས་བྱ་ཞིང (so named, but wrongly so) · cs takzvaný (so named) · bo ཞེས་བྱ་བ (so named, but wrongly so) · ca anomenat (so named, but wrongly so) · hy այսպես կոչված (so named) · de sog. (so named, but wrongly so) · grc λεγόμενος (so named, but wrongly so) · bo ཅེས་ཟེར་བ (so named) · es (ansí) llamado (so named) · el λεγόμενος (so named, but wrongly so) · nb såkalt (so named, but wrongly so) · be так зва́ны (so named) · grc οὕτω καλούμενος (so named, but wrongly so)