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
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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