See as it were in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for as it were meaning in English (9.9kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "as it were"
},
"expansion": "Middle English as it were",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "as hyt were"
},
"expansion": "as hyt were",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "als it were"
},
"expansion": "als it were",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "als hit were"
},
"expansion": "als hit were",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "*ealswā hit wǣre"
},
"expansion": "Old English *ealswā hit wǣre",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "swā hit wǣre"
},
"expansion": "swā hit wǣre",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "swylċe hit wǣre",
"lit": "as it would be",
"t": "as it were"
},
"expansion": "swylċe hit wǣre (“as it were”, literally “as it would be”)",
"name": "m"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle English as it were, as hyt were, als it were, als hit were, from Old English *ealswā hit wǣre, attested only as swā hit wǣre and swylċe hit wǣre (“as it were”, literally “as it would be”).",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "as it were (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adverb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adv",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see as, it, were."
],
"id": "en-as_it_were-en-adv-XARAC-Em",
"links": [
[
"as",
"as#English"
],
[
"it",
"it#English"
],
[
"were",
"were#English"
]
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "With so much construction and renovation going on all around him, he was more or less living in a new city now, as it were. [His city is not newly founded, and it has been neither renamed nor moved, but in some practical way it is true that he does not live in the same city that he used to live in.]",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions",
"text": "Yet so strong is the parental ambition among those Polygons who are, as it were, on the fringe of the Circular class, that it is very rare to find a Nobleman of that position in society, who has neglected to place his first-born in the Circular Neo-Therapeutic Gymnasium before he has attained the age of a month.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 91",
"text": "[T]here was no very clear vision, to these people, of supra-mundane beings, sitting apart and ordaining the affairs of earth, as it were from a distance.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used to indicate that a word or statement is perhaps not exact though practically right; as if it were so."
],
"id": "en-as_it_were-en-adv-en:inexactly_speaking",
"senseid": [
"en:inexactly speaking"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "if you will"
},
{
"word": "in a manner of speaking"
},
{
"word": "so to speak"
}
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "as't ware"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "可說"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "kěshuō",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "可说"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "hǎoxiàng",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "好像"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "jakoby"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "så at sige"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "als het ware"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "niin sanotusti"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "pour ainsi dire"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "ka",
"lang": "Georgian",
"roman": "ase vtkvat",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "ასე ვთქვათ"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "gewissermaßen"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "gleichsam"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "sozusagen"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mintha"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mintegy"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "kvázi"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "lt",
"lang": "Lithuanian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "lyg"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "lt",
"lang": "Lithuanian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "tarytum"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "nds-de",
"lang": "Low German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"tags": [
"German-Low-German"
],
"word": "as dat weer"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "mk",
"lang": "Macedonian",
"roman": "što se vika",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "што се вика"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "ētia"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "no",
"lang": "Norwegian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mer eller mindre"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "niejako"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "por assim dizer"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "digamos assim"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "tak skazátʹ",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "так сказа́ть"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mar gum biodh"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"roman": "maltene",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "малтене"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "digamos"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "por así decirlo"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "typ"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "så att säga"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "liksom"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "fel petai"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 90 8",
"alt": "kev(i)yokhl",
"code": "yi",
"lang": "Yiddish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "כּבֿיכול"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "2 32 67",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "4 38 58",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "1 40 58",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English positive polarity items",
"parents": [
"Positive polarity items",
"Terms by semantic function"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "6 35 59",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"parents": [
"Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: no pun intended"
},
{
"text": "She gave all of the women seated at the restaurant food for thought, as it were.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "Concerns that cloud seeding might “steal” water from an area a cloud is traveling toward—robbing Peter to water Paul, as it were—have been dispelled.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2014 March 3, “A Powerful New Way to Edit DNA”, in New York Times",
"text": "Scientists hope Crispr might also be used for genomic surgery, as it were, to correct errant genes that cause disease.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2015 November 5, “Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers”, in The Atlantic",
"text": "The Volkswagen diesel-emissions exploit was caused by a software failing, even if it seems to have been engineered, as it were, deliberately-",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 March 31, “Hail Cesar!”, in National Review",
"text": "Congress ended the bracero program in 1964, and the next 15 years were the salad days, as it were, for farmworkers",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used to draw attention to the use of a metaphor, sometimes to prevent confusion or to highlight wordplay."
],
"id": "en-as_it_were-en-adv-en:figuratively_speaking",
"links": [
[
"metaphor",
"metaphor#English"
]
],
"senseid": [
"en:figuratively speaking"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "figuratively"
},
{
"word": "if you will"
},
{
"word": "metaphorically"
},
{
"word": "so to speak"
}
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
]
}
],
"word": "as it were"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adverbs",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English positive polarity items",
"English speech-act adverbs",
"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Old English",
"English terms inherited from Middle English",
"English terms inherited from Old English",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English uncomparable adverbs"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "as it were"
},
"expansion": "Middle English as it were",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "as hyt were"
},
"expansion": "as hyt were",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "als it were"
},
"expansion": "als it were",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "als hit were"
},
"expansion": "als hit were",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "*ealswā hit wǣre"
},
"expansion": "Old English *ealswā hit wǣre",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "swā hit wǣre"
},
"expansion": "swā hit wǣre",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "swylċe hit wǣre",
"lit": "as it would be",
"t": "as it were"
},
"expansion": "swylċe hit wǣre (“as it were”, literally “as it would be”)",
"name": "m"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle English as it were, as hyt were, als it were, als hit were, from Old English *ealswā hit wǣre, attested only as swā hit wǣre and swylċe hit wǣre (“as it were”, literally “as it would be”).",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "as it were (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adverb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adv",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see as, it, were."
],
"links": [
[
"as",
"as#English"
],
[
"it",
"it#English"
],
[
"were",
"were#English"
]
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "With so much construction and renovation going on all around him, he was more or less living in a new city now, as it were. [His city is not newly founded, and it has been neither renamed nor moved, but in some practical way it is true that he does not live in the same city that he used to live in.]",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions",
"text": "Yet so strong is the parental ambition among those Polygons who are, as it were, on the fringe of the Circular class, that it is very rare to find a Nobleman of that position in society, who has neglected to place his first-born in the Circular Neo-Therapeutic Gymnasium before he has attained the age of a month.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 91",
"text": "[T]here was no very clear vision, to these people, of supra-mundane beings, sitting apart and ordaining the affairs of earth, as it were from a distance.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used to indicate that a word or statement is perhaps not exact though practically right; as if it were so."
],
"senseid": [
"en:inexactly speaking"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "if you will"
},
{
"word": "in a manner of speaking"
},
{
"word": "so to speak"
}
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: no pun intended"
},
{
"text": "She gave all of the women seated at the restaurant food for thought, as it were.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "Concerns that cloud seeding might “steal” water from an area a cloud is traveling toward—robbing Peter to water Paul, as it were—have been dispelled.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2014 March 3, “A Powerful New Way to Edit DNA”, in New York Times",
"text": "Scientists hope Crispr might also be used for genomic surgery, as it were, to correct errant genes that cause disease.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2015 November 5, “Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers”, in The Atlantic",
"text": "The Volkswagen diesel-emissions exploit was caused by a software failing, even if it seems to have been engineered, as it were, deliberately-",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 March 31, “Hail Cesar!”, in National Review",
"text": "Congress ended the bracero program in 1964, and the next 15 years were the salad days, as it were, for farmworkers",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used to draw attention to the use of a metaphor, sometimes to prevent confusion or to highlight wordplay."
],
"links": [
[
"metaphor",
"metaphor#English"
]
],
"senseid": [
"en:figuratively speaking"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "figuratively"
},
{
"word": "if you will"
},
{
"word": "metaphorically"
},
{
"word": "so to speak"
}
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "as't ware"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "可說"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "kěshuō",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "可说"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "hǎoxiàng",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "好像"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "jakoby"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "så at sige"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "als het ware"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "niin sanotusti"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "pour ainsi dire"
},
{
"code": "ka",
"lang": "Georgian",
"roman": "ase vtkvat",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "ასე ვთქვათ"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "gewissermaßen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "gleichsam"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "sozusagen"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mintha"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mintegy"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "kvázi"
},
{
"code": "lt",
"lang": "Lithuanian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "lyg"
},
{
"code": "lt",
"lang": "Lithuanian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "tarytum"
},
{
"code": "nds-de",
"lang": "Low German",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"tags": [
"German-Low-German"
],
"word": "as dat weer"
},
{
"code": "mk",
"lang": "Macedonian",
"roman": "što se vika",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "што се вика"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "ētia"
},
{
"code": "no",
"lang": "Norwegian",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mer eller mindre"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "niejako"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "por assim dizer"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "digamos assim"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "tak skazátʹ",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "так сказа́ть"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "mar gum biodh"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"roman": "maltene",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "малтене"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "digamos"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "por así decirlo"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "typ"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "så att säga"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "liksom"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "fel petai"
},
{
"alt": "kev(i)yokhl",
"code": "yi",
"lang": "Yiddish",
"sense": "to indicate a word or statement is not exact",
"word": "כּבֿיכול"
}
],
"word": "as it were"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.