as it were

Idioms  

1. Seemingly, in a way, as in He was living in a dream world, as it were. A shortening of “as if it were so,” this idiom has been in use since Chaucer's time (he had it in his Nun's Priest's Tale, c. 1386). Also see so to speak.

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Example Sentences

It can't hold the world to ransom, as it were.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

The game, as it were, is to get Malcolm to the party.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

She stated that “reader and writer sit down to a game, as it were, with the odds, of course, altogether on the latter’s side.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

The latest evidence for the prosecution, as it were, comes from the Social Security rolls, which show that record numbers of people are now claiming monthly benefits.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 5, 2025

His peers were unwilling to examine the dead, and so the job had fallen to him, by default as it were.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson