so much as
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The big cities no longer decide what feels culturally relevant so much as they absorb it.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
But even that pull toward something messier and more immediate doesn’t sit outside the festival so much as become another version of it.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2026
For Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and their neighbors, Chinese inputs aren’t a strategic choice so much as an economic reality.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right,” he wrote External link in Resistance to Civil Government, the essay known as Civil Disobedience.
From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026
I noticed that Rasseem had slunk away without so much as a nod once he had seen there was no benefit for him.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
