Word.ws English Dictionary

as it were

as it were adverb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see as, it, were.

Adverb

as it were (not comparable)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see as, it, were.
  2. Used to indicate that a word or statement is perhaps not exact though practically right; as if it were so.
    • With so much construction and renovation going on all around him, he was more or less living in a new city now, as it were. [His city is not newly founded, and it has been neither renamed nor moved, but in some practical way it is true that he does not live in the same city that he used to live in.]
    • God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the ſtrength of an Vnicorne.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 23:22, column 2
  3. Used to draw attention to the use of a metaphor, sometimes to prevent confusion or to highlight wordplay.
    • She gave all of the women seated at the restaurant food for thought, as it were.
    • Concerns that cloud seeding might “steal” water from an area a cloud is traveling toward—robbing Peter to water Paul, as it were—have been dispelled.

as it were meaning in Malayalam and Sanskrit

as it were in Malayalam

in a manner of speaking, so to speak, to some extent
അതായത്, എന്നുവച്ചാൽ, അങ്ങനെയെങ്കിൽ, എന്നുവരികിൽ, എന്നാലോ, അങ്ങനെപറയാമെങ്കിൽ

as it were in Sanskrit

as it were, as if
इव iva

Examples of as it were in a sentence

  • [T]here was no very clear vision, to these people, of supra-mundane beings, sitting apart and ordaining the affairs of earth, as it were from a distance.1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 91:
  • Scientists hope Crispr might also be used for genomic surgery, as it were, to correct errant genes that cause disease.2014 March 3, “A Powerful New Way to Edit DNA”, in New York Times:
  • The Volkswagen diesel-emissions exploit was caused by a software failing, even if it seems to have been engineered, as it were, deliberately-2015 November 5, “Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers”, in The Atlantic:
  • Congress ended the bracero program in 1964, and the next 15 years were the salad days, as it were, for farmworkers2017 March 31, “Hail Cesar!”, in National Review:

Synonyms of as it were

All synonyms of as it were

Origin of as it were

From Middle English as it were, as hyt were, als it were, als hit were, from Old English *ealswā hit wǣre, attested only as swā hit wǣre and swylċe hit wǣre (“as it were”, literally “as it would be”). Compare Dutch als het ware.

Questions about as it were

What does as it were mean?
As it were means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see as, it, were.
What is as it were in Malayalam?
As it were in Malayalam is അതായത്, എന്നുവച്ചാൽ, അങ്ങനെയെങ്കിൽ. See As it were meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use as it were in a sentence?
[T]here was no very clear vision, to these people, of supra-mundane beings, sitting apart and ordaining the affairs of earth, as it were from a distance.
What part of speech is as it were?
As it were is an adverb.

Words near as it were in the dictionary

  1. as it goes
  2. as it happens
  3. as it is
  4. as it so happens
  5. as it stands
  6. as it were
  7. as large as life
  8. AS Level
  9. AS Levels
  10. as like as not
  11. as likely as not

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: as it were (page history and authors); as it were (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); इव (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-as it were.wav.

Cite this entry: “as it were.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/as_it_were. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.