so

Agreeing with actual facts or reality; true.

Adjective

  1. Agreeing with actual facts or reality; true.
    • That is so.
    • You are responsible for this, is that not so?
    • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were...
  2. In that state or manner; with that attribute. A proadjective that replaces the aforementioned adjective phrase.
    • "You're definitely not right about that." "I am so!" (→I am right about that).
    • If this separation was painful to all parties, it was most so to Martha. - 1823, Andrew Reed, Martha:
    • But if I had been more fit to be married, I might have made you more so too. - 1872, Charles Dickens, “The Personal History of David Copperfield”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
  3. Homosexual.
    • Is he so?

Origin

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”).

Forms

more so most so

Synonyms

correct right true musical one of the family one of them that way inclined

Derived

make it so more so

Adverb

  1. To the (explicitly stated) extent.
    • It was so hot outside that all the plants died.
    • He was so good, they hired him on the spot.
    • You behaviour so incensed me that I even thought of firing you.
  2. To the (implied) extent.
    • I need a piece of cloth so long. [= this long]
    • 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. - 1897 December (indicated as 1898),...
  3. Very (positive or negative clause).
    • I feel so much better now.
    • I so nearly lost my temper.
    • It’s not so bad. [i.e. it's acceptable]
  4. Very much.
    • But I so want to see the Queen when she visits our town!
    • 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...
    • I so wanted to be Jess Harley again. - 1989, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5, Archie Comics:

    1. (informal) at all (negative clause).

      • That is so not true!
  5. In the same manner or to the same extent as aforementioned; likewise, also.
    • As above, so below.
    • 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."
    • He wants to eat now. So does she.
  6. Indeed.
    • ‘Look, it’s just stopped raining.’ ‘So it has!’
    • ‘There are two more.’ ‘So there are.’
  7. : To such an extent or degree; as.
    • so far as; so long as; so much as

Synonyms

really truly that very this yea like this thus very much

Derived

and so forth and so on and so say all of us as it so happens as so 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 howso howsofar 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

Conjunction

  1. Reduced form of 'so that', used to express purpose; in order that.
    • I got an earlier train to work so I'd have plenty of time to prepare for the meeting.
    • Eat your broccoli so you can have dessert.
  2. As a result; for that reason; therefore; because of this; due to this.
    • I was hungry, so I asked if there was any more food.
    • He ate too much cake and so he fell ill.
    • He wanted a book, so he went to the library.
  3. Used to connect previous conversation or events to the following question.
    • So how does this story end?
  4. Used to introduce a rhetorical question.
    • “We'd like to visit but I don't know if we can afford a hotel.” — “So who's staying in a hotel? Stay with us.”
  5. Provided that; on condition that; as long as.
    • Speed. ‘Item: She doth talk in her sleep.’ Launce. It’s no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk. - c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
    • As we cal money not onely that which is true and good, but also the false; so it be currant. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 18, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for...
    • […] though all the windes of doctrin were let loose play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. - 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of...

Synonyms

so that that

Interjection

  1. Used after a pause for thought to introduce a new topic, question or story, or a new thought or question in continuation of an existing topic.
    • So, let's go home.
    • So, what'll you have?
    • So, there was this squirrel stuck in the chimney...

    Synonyms: look well see hey

  2. Used as a question to ask for further explanation of something said, often rhetorically or in a dismissive or impolite manner.
    • "You park your car in front of my house every morning." — "So?"
  3. Used as a meaningless filler word to begin a response to a question.
    • What are you doing? / So I'm just fixing this shelf.
    • What time does the train leave? / So it leaves at 10 o'clock.
  4. Be as you are; stand still; used especially to cows; also used by sailors.

Noun entertainment, lifestyle

  1. A syllable used in solfège to represent the fifth note of a major scale.

    1. (shapenote) Sometimes syllable for both the second and the fifth.

Origin

Shortened from sol, to make it an open syllable for uniformity with the rest of the scale, from Glover's solmization, from Middle English sol (“fifth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian sol in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin solve (“wash away”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

Forms

sos

Noun Entry 6

  1. A type of dairy product, made especially in Japan between the seventh and tenth centuries, by reducing milk by boiling it.

Origin

Borrowed from Japanese 蘇 (so).

Related

Another photo of so at Wikicommons ah so

Pronoun demonstrative

  1. That which was previously mentioned; that.
    • I'll become a loyal friend and remain so.
    • If that's what you really mean, then just say so.
    • You may need to refer to litigation as a procedure, and when you have done so, you can say a matter is "in litigation".

Pronoun abbreviation, alt of

  1. Abbreviation of someone.

Synonyms

sb