so-called

From so +‎ called.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sōʹkôld', IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊˌkɔːld/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsoʊˌkɔld/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

so-called (not comparable)

1. So named; commonly called.

   the so-called Ising mode

   • 1988, Ingrid Coetzee, Gerhard-Mark Van der Waal, Conservation of Culture: Changing Context and Challenges:

     Another Canadian example is that of the so-called Halfback Program initiated in the province of Ontario. With this scheme state lottery tickets with which no prizes are won retain 50% of the value of their initial cost […]

   • 2010, Matty McEire, Looking for Sheville, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:

     ... I hadn't met any straight women at the gay bars — a few so called "fag hags" fraternizing with the boys, of course, but ...

   • 2025 February 4, Katie Bo Lillis and Kaitlan Collins, “CIA sends ‘buyout’ offers to entire workforce”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday became the first major national security agency to offer so-called buyouts to its entire workforce, a CIA spokesperson and two other sources familiar with the offer said, part of President Donald Trump’s broad effort to shrink the federal government and shape it to his agenda.

2. (ironic) commonly called by such a name, but false or unfitting.

   These so-called "assistants" are making our jobs harder, not easier!

   • 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 1896, →OCLC, page 5:

     […] 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, […]

   • 2024, David Golinkin, “Is Mixed Dancing Really Forbidden At Weddings?”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 242:

     So-called Orthodox synagogues who organized mixed dances in order to raise money for various causes.

• “so-called”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• So-Called. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved on 6 June 2016.