so
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: enpr: sō
ipa: /səʊ/
ipa: /siː/
ipa: /sə/
enpr: sō
ipa: /soʊ/
ipa: [soː]
note: Dublin, Local
ipa: /sʌo/
rhymes: -əʊ
homophone: seau
homophone: sew
homophone: soe
homophone: soh
homophone: soy stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
homophone: sow stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Etymology: From Middle English so, swo, zuo, swa, swe, from Old English swā, swǣ, swē (“so, as, the same, such, that”), from Proto-West Germanic *swā, from Proto-Germanic *swa, *swē (“so”), from Proto-Indo-European *swē, *swō (reflexive pronomial stem). Cognate with Scots sae (“so”), Saterland Frisian so (“so”), West Frisian sa (“so”), Dutch zo (“so”), German Low German so (“so”), German so (“so”), Danish så (“so”), Norwegian Nynorsk so (“so”), Swedish så (“so, such that”), Faroese so (“so”), Icelandic svo (“so”), Old Latin suad (“so”), Albanian sa (“how much, so, as”), Ancient Greek ὡς (hōs, “as”), Urdu سو (sō, “hence”).
Senses: examples: text: It was so hot outside that all the plants died.
text: He was so good, they hired him on the spot.
text: You behaviour so incensed me that I even thought of firing you.
text: It was so cold a day that I could hardly breathe outside.
text: So ridiculously did I do in the exam that mom grounded me for a month.
text: Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: To the (explicitly stated) extent.
examples: text: I need a piece of cloth so long. [= this long]
text: We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: To the (implied) extent.
examples: text: I feel so much better now.
text: I so nearly lost my temper.
text: It’s not so bad. [i.e. it's acceptable]
text: Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Very (positive or negative clause).
examples: text: But I so want to see the Queen when she visits our town!
text: Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: I so wanted to be Jess Harley again.
ref: 1989, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5, Archie Comics:
text: Yeah! Not eating is so 90’s!
ref: 2003 April 16, Michael Stokes, “I, Dude”, in Totally Spies!, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Clover (Andrea Taylor), Marathon Media, via Teletoon:
glosses: Very much.
examples: text: That is so not true!
glosses: Very much.
at all (negative clause).
examples: text: Just as you have the right to your free speech, so I have the right to mine.  Many people say she's the world's greatest athlete, but I don't think so.  "I can count backwards from one hundred." "So can I."
text: He wants to eat now. So does she.
text: "Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin, "thou seemest happy this merry morn." ¶ "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher, "and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?"
ref: 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:
text: The work thus done has probably been of the greatest value to the human race; but, just as in other cases it has sometimes happened that the effort to do a certain work has resulted in the end in an unbalanced exaggeration so here.
ref: 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 192:
text: It was a goal that meant West Ham won on their first appearance at Wembley in 31 years, in doing so becoming the first team since Leicester in 1996 to bounce straight back to the Premier League through the play-offs.
ref: 2012 May 19, Paul Fletcher, “Blackpool 1-2 West Ham”, in BBC Sport:
text: it's okay to be different
'Cause baby, so am I
ref: 2019, Amanda Koci, Henry Walter, Charlie Puth, Maria Smith, Victor Thellm, Gigi Grombacher, Roland Spreckle, “So Am I”, performed by Ava Max:
glosses: In the same manner or to the same extent as aforementioned; likewise, also.
examples: text: ‘Look, it’s just stopped raining.’ ‘So it has!’
text: ‘There are two more.’ ‘So there are.’
glosses: Indeed.
examples: text: so far as;  so long as;  so much as
glosses: To such an extent or degree; as.
raw_tags: with as
Synonyms: sense: very
word: really
sense: very
word: truly
sense: very
word: that
sense: very
word: very
sense: to a particular extent
word: that
sense: to a particular extent
word: this
sense: to a particular extent
word: yea
sense: in the same aformentioned manner
word: like this
sense: in the same aformentioned manner
word: thus
sense: slang: very much
word: really
word: truly
word: very much
Derived terms: and so forth
and so on
and so say all of us
as it so happens
be it so
even so
ever so
every so often
for so long a time
'fraid so
go so far as
how came you so
how so
I don't think so
if I do say so myself
if I may be so bold
if I may make so bold
if I may say so
if I might be so bold
if I say so myself
if it be so
if so
if so be
if you say so
I'm afraid so
in so much
isn't it so
is that so
I think so
I told you so
just so
less so
like so
make it so that
none-so-pretty
not so fast
not-so-hot
not so hot
not so much
oh so
one should be so lucky
one should live so long
or so
quite so
rightly so
say-so
so-and-so
so as
so as to
so be it
so-called
so crazy
so crazy it just might work
so far
so far as
so far so good
so fashion
so help me
so help me Bob
so help me cat
so help me God
so help me tater
so help me tatur
so help my tater
so help you God
so is life
so it goes
so it seems
so long
so long as
so many
so mickle
so mote it be
so much
so much as
so much for
so much so
so much the better
so much the worse
so much the worse for
so on
so-so
so there
so they say
so to say
so to speak
so what
thank ye so very much
the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last
there are none so blind as those who will not see
there are none so deaf as those who will not hear
there's none so blind as those who will not see
there's nowt so queer as folk
though I say so myself
thus and so
told you so
up so down
whoso