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so it goes

so it goes phrase: an expression of acceptance of misfortune.

Phrase

so it goes

An expression of acceptance of misfortune.
- Near-synonyms: that's the way life is, that's life, such is life, it is what it is; see also Thesaurus:that's life
- His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 1
Synonyms:

that's the way it goes, that's the way the ball bounces, that's the way the cookie crumbles, that's the way life is, that's life, such is life, it is what it is, c'est la vie, it is as it is, it is how it is

Synonyms of so it goes

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

life's a bitch
shit happens
so be it
so is life
that's that and this is this
that’s the way it plays
that's the way the mop flops
them's the breaks

Questions about so it goes

What does so it goes mean?: So it goes means an expression of acceptance of misfortune.
What part of speech is so it goes?: So it goes is a phrase.

Words near so it goes in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: so it goes (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: 2026-09-02

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