so to speak

1. 1.

   as if it were really so

   “she lives here, as it were”

   Synonymsas it were
2. 2.

   in a manner of speaking

   “the feeling is, as we say, quite dead”

   Synonymsas we say

Questions about so to speak

What does so to speak mean?

so to speak means "as if it were really so". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for so to speak?

Close synonyms include as it were, as we say. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.