so to speak

Idioms  

1. Phrased like this, in a manner of speaking, as in He was, so to speak, the head of the family, although he was only related by marriage to most of the family members. This term originally meant “in the vernacular” or “lower-class language” and was used as an aristocrat's apology for stooping to such use. [Early 1800s] Also see as it were.

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Example Sentences

“Those were his, so to speak, survival skills.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 3, 2026

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft have to deliver the goods, so to speak.

From Barron's • Apr. 28, 2026

The first shot, so to speak, came in Anthropic’s conflict with the Pentagon after the company refused to have its technology used for fully autonomous killer drone storms and the mass surveillance of Americans.

From Salon • Mar. 23, 2026

That’s where the drill meets the coalface, so to speak.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026

We didn’t have an upper register, so to speak, but only the middle range of our shared experience and ways of behaving, of joking around.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides