Word.ws English Dictionary

in so many words

in so many words prepositional phrase: verbatim; using exactly the given words.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Verbatim; using exactly the given words.
    • In so many words, he asked me to give him the answers to the test.
    • He said he liked you. At least, not in so many words, but that was the idea.

Questions about in so many words

What does in so many words mean?
In so many words means verbatim; using exactly the given words.
What part of speech is in so many words?
In so many words is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in so many words in the dictionary

  1. in silhouette
  2. in silico
  3. in situ
  4. in small doses
  5. in so far as
  6. in so many words
  7. in so much
  8. in someone's black books
  9. in someone's blood
  10. in someone's boots
  11. in someone's corner

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in so many words (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:

Cite this entry: “in so many words.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_so_many_words. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.