in so many words
"in-so-many-words" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“in so many words” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Verbatim; using exactly the given words.
Corpus desk
Index EN-in-so-many-words · in so many words · English
in so many words · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | in so many words |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “in so many words” in English
Rare enough to double-check
in so many words is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Verbatim; using exactly the given words.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for in so many words, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is in so many words, spelled I-N- -S-O- -M-A-N-Y- -W-O-R-D-S.
Definition
- 1Verbatim; using exactly the given words.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how in so many words appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In so many words, he asked me to give him the answers to the test.
He said he liked you. At least, not in so many words, but that was the idea.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.