Word.ws English Dictionary

so-called

UK/ˈsəʊˌkɔːld//ˈsoʊˌkɔld/

so-called adjective: so named; commonly called.

Adjective

so-called (not comparable)

  1. So named; commonly called.
    • the so-called Ising mode
    • About 200 guests were invited and entertained to lunch in the so-called booking hall at Waterloo; the contractors, Spiers & Pond Limited, were much praised for organising the repast, with attendant cloak room facilities, so well in such unfavourable surroundings.1958 August, T. S. Lascelles, “Diamond Jubilee of the Waterloo & City Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 523
  2. (ironic) Commonly called by such a name, but false or unfitting.
    • These so-called "assistants" are making our jobs harder, not easier!
    • […]dawdling away the hours in the Park as if all the world and its millions of honest hard workers were created solely for the casual diversion of the so-called 'upper' classes,[…]1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published...

so-called meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

so-called in Hindi

so named, but wrongly so
कहने को kahne ko, बोलने को bolne ko

so-called in Tamil

என்றழைக்கப்படுகிற

so-called in Urdu

so-called, assumed
نام نہاد nām-nihād

so-called in Malayalam

എന്ന് അറിയപ്പെടുന്ന, വിളിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന, അപ്രകാരം വിളിക്കുന്ന, ആ പേരിൽ അറിയുന്ന
More languagesFewer languages
so-called in Punjabi
ਕਥਿਤ kathit
so-called in Sinhala
ඊනියා
so-called in Arabic
مَا يُسَمَّى mā yusammā
so-called in Persian
به اصطلاح, کذایی kazâyi
so-called in Vietnamese
cái gọi là
Sindhi
نام نهاد nām ̃hād

Examples of so-called in a sentence

  • Another Canadian example is that of the so-called Halfback Program initiated in the province of Ontario.1988, Ingrid Coetzee, Gerhard-Mark Van der Waal, Conservation of Culture: Changing Context and Challenges:
  • So-called Orthodox synagogues who organized mixed dances in order to raise money for various causes.2024, David Golinkin, “Is Mixed Dancing Really Forbidden At Weddings?”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 242:

Forms of so-called

alternative formso called
alternative formsocalled

Origin of so-called

From so + called.

Words formed from so-called

Phrases with so-called

Questions about so-called

What does so-called mean?
So-called means so named; commonly called.
What is so-called in Hindi?
So-called in Hindi is कहने को (kahne ko), बोलने को (bolne ko). See So-called meaning in Hindi.
How do you use so-called in a sentence?
Another Canadian example is that of the so-called Halfback Program initiated in the province of Ontario.
What part of speech is so-called?
So-called is an adjective.
How do you pronounce so-called?
So-called is pronounced /ˈsəʊˌkɔːld/ (UK).

Words near so-called in the dictionary

  1. so's
  2. So'ton
  3. so-and-so
  4. so-and-sos
  5. So-cal
  6. so-called
  7. so-called dollar
  8. so-called dollars
  9. So-ch'e
  10. SO-DIMM
  11. SO-DIMMs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: so-called (page history and authors); so-called (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); نام نہاد (Urdu) (page history and authors); so-called (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਕਥਿਤ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); so-called (Sinhala Wiktionary) (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)-Persent101-so-called.wav.

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