Standard Lemma guide

so-called

adj · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: sōʹkôld'
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsəʊˌkɔːld/
  • US: /ˈsoʊˌkɔld/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: S OW1 K AO1 L D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

So named; commonly called.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Examples

  • the so-called Ising mode

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

commonly called by such a name, but false or unfitting.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ironic, not-comparable

Examples

  • These so-called "assistants" are making our jobs harder, not easier!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

doubtful or suspect

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • these so-called experts are no help

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: alleged(a), supposed

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From so + called.

Across languages

Translations

127 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: مَا يُسَمَّى (mā yusammā) — so named
  • Armenian: այսպես կոչված (ayspes kočʻvac) — so named
  • Azerbaijani: adlanan — so named
  • Belarusian: так зва́ны (tak zvány) — so named
  • Belarusian: т.з. (t.z.) — so named
  • Bulgarian: така́ наре́чен (taká naréčen) — so named
  • Chinese Mandarin: 所謂 /所谓 (suǒwèi) — so named
  • Czech: takzvaný — so named
  • Danish: såkaldt — so named
  • Dutch: zogenaamd — so named
  • Dutch: zgn. — so named
  • Dutch: zogeheten — so named
  • Dutch: zogenoemd — so named
  • Finnish: niin sanottu — so named
  • Finnish: niin kutsuttu — so named
  • French: dénommé — so named
  • Georgian: ეგრეთ წოდებული (egret c̣odebuli) — so named
  • Georgian: ეგრეთწოდებული (egretc̣odebuli) — so named
  • German: sogenannt — so named
  • Greek: αποκαλούμενος (apokaloúmenos) — so named
  • Greek: λεγόμενος (legómenos) — so named
  • Hebrew: נקרא כך (nikrá kakh) — so named
  • Hebrew: שנקרא כך (shenikrá kakh) — so named
  • Hebrew: כך נקרא (kakh nikrá) — so named
  • Hungarian: úgynevezett — so named
  • Italian: cosiddetto — so named
  • Japanese: 所謂 (iwayuru) — so named
  • Korean: 소위 (sowi) — so named
  • Korean: 이른바 (ireunba) — so named
  • Central Kurdish: بە ناو (be naw) — so named
  • Latin: nuncupativus — so named
  • Macedonian: таканаречен (takanarečen) — so named
  • Norwegian Bokmål: såkalt — so named
  • Pannonian Rusyn: такволани (takvolani) — so named
  • Persian: به اصطلاح — so named
  • Polish: tak zwany — so named
  • Portuguese: dito — so named
  • Portuguese: chamado — so named
  • Romanian: așa-numit — so named
  • Romanian: așa-zis — so named
  • Russian: так называ́емый (tak nazyvájemyj) — so named
  • Russian: т.н. (t.n.) — so named
  • Serbo-Croatian: тако̀зва̄нӣ — so named
  • Serbo-Croatian: takòzvānī — so named
  • Slovak: takzvaný — so named
  • Slovene: tako imenovan — so named
  • Spanish: denominado — so named
  • Spanish: (ansí) llamado — so named
  • Swedish: så kallad — so named
  • Tibetan: ཟེར་བའི (zer ba'i) — so named
  • Tibetan: གྲག་པའི (grag pa'i) — so named
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་ཟེར་བ (ces zer ba) — so named
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་བྱ་བ (ces bya ba) — so named
  • Tibetan: ཞེས་བྱ་བ (zhes bya ba) — so named
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་བྱ་ཞིང (ces bya zhing) — so named
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ (ces bya ste) — so named
  • Ukrainian: так зва́ний (tak zványj) — so named
  • Ukrainian: т.з. (t.z.) — so named
  • Albanian: ashtuquajtur — so named, but wrongly so
  • Armenian: այսպես կոչված (ayspes kočʻvac) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Azerbaijani: dırnaqarası — so named, but wrongly so
  • Belarusian: так зва́ны (tak zvány) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Belarusian: т.з. (t.z.) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Bulgarian: така́ наре́чен (taká naréčen) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Catalan: anomenat — so named, but wrongly so
  • Catalan: dit — so named, but wrongly so
  • Chinese Cantonese: 所謂嘅 /所谓嘅 (so2 wai6 ge3) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Chinese Mandarin: 所謂 /所谓 (suǒwèi) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Czech: takzvaný — so named, but wrongly so
  • Danish: såkaldt — so named, but wrongly so
  • Dutch: zogenaamd — so named, but wrongly so
  • Dutch: zgn. — so named, but wrongly so
  • Estonian: nõndanimetatud — so named, but wrongly so
  • Finnish: muka — so named, but wrongly so
  • Finnish: niin sanottu — so named, but wrongly so
  • Finnish: niin kutsuttu — so named, but wrongly so
  • French: soi-disant — so named, but wrongly so
  • French: prétendu — so named, but wrongly so
  • German: sogenannt — so named, but wrongly so
  • German: sog. — so named, but wrongly so
  • Greek: αποκαλούμενος (apokaloúmenos) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Greek: λεγόμενος (legómenos) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Greek: δήθεν (díthen) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Ancient Greek: λεγόμενος (legómenos) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Ancient Greek: οὕτω καλούμενος (hoútō kaloúmenos) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Ancient Greek: οὕτω ὀνομαζόμενος (hoútō onomazómenos) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Hebrew: כביכול used as a conjunctive adverb (kiv’yakhól, k’vayaklhól) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Hebrew: not an adjective — so named, but wrongly so
  • Hindi: कहने को (kahne ko) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Hindi: बोलने को (bolne ko) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Hungarian: úgynevezett — so named, but wrongly so
  • Italian: cosiddetto — so named, but wrongly so
  • Japanese: 所謂 (iwayuru) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Korean: 소위 (sowi) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Korean: 이른바 (ireunba) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Norwegian Bokmål: såkalt — so named, but wrongly so
  • Persian: کذایی (kazâyi) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Persian: به اصطلاح — so named, but wrongly so
  • Polish: tak zwany — so named, but wrongly so
  • Polish: rzekomy — so named, but wrongly so
  • Portuguese: assim chamado — so named, but wrongly so
  • Portuguese: chamado — so named, but wrongly so
  • Portuguese: dito — so named, but wrongly so
  • Portuguese: suposto — so named, but wrongly so
  • Romanian: așa-zis — so named, but wrongly so
  • Russian: так называ́емый (tak nazyvájemyj) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Russian: т.н. (t.n.) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Serbo-Croatian: тако̀зва̄нӣ — so named, but wrongly so
  • Serbo-Croatian: takòzvānī — so named, but wrongly so
  • Sindhi: نام نهاد (nām ̃hād) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Slovene: tako imenovan — so named, but wrongly so
  • Spanish: supuesto — so named, but wrongly so
  • Spanish: presunto — so named, but wrongly so
  • Spanish: dizque — so named, but wrongly so
  • Swedish: så kallad — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: ཟེར་བའི (zer ba'i) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: གྲག་པའི (grag pa'i) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་ཟེར་བ (ces zer ba) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་བྱ་བ (ces bya ba) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: ཞེས་བྱ་བ (zhes bya ba) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་བྱ་ཞིང (ces bya zhing) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Tibetan: ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ (ces bya ste) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Turkish: sözde — so named, but wrongly so
  • Ukrainian: так зва́ний (tak zványj) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Ukrainian: т.з. (t.z.) — so named, but wrongly so
  • Vietnamese: cái gọi là — so named, but wrongly so
  • Yiddish: אַזוי גערופֿן (azoy gerufn) — so named, but wrongly so
Real reading context

so-called in complete knowledge articles