in so many words

In those precise words; also, plainly, directly. For example, He didn't tell me in so many words, but I understood that he planned to apply, or, as Charles Dickens put it in Sketches by “Boz” (1836): “That the Lord Mayor had threatened in so many words to pull down the London Bridge.” [Late 1600s]

Discover More

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“And I don’t think I’ve ever said this in so many words, but I did think to myself that once Hamilton was dead, she had him to herself. Nobody would get to come between her and him ever again.”

Read more on Slate

And that is what the court will likely hold, in so many words, though it may dress up the ruling in legalese designed to obscure its catastrophic impact.

Read more on Slate

I think that when Justice Todd Eddins of the Hawaii Supreme Court says, in so many words, that John Roberts and his comrades are a bunch of clowns in robes, that makes room for Judge James Wynn on the 4th Circuit to say that the Supreme Court is leaving him “flailing” in “limbo.”

Read more on Slate

And while most have the best intentions, with no guidance for how to approach this sensitive topic, the resulting ads can swing from describing how the prospective adoptive parents met to essentially—though not in so many words—saying “Pregnant? We want to buy your baby.”

Read more on Slate

Allegedly, Romanians saw an American oil tycoon enjoying easy access to nice cars and other possessions and thought, in so many words, "Why can't that be me?"