so

conj

1. (form-of, reduced)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.”

   ““I need to go to the bathroom.” ― “So go!””

   “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.”

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. (archaic)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.”

   “As we cal money not onely that which is true and good, but also the false; so it be currant.”

   “[…] 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.”

   “I went away very well satisfy’d, not caring where I was sent, so it was but out of his Sight; for he now became more my Aversion than ever.”

adv

1. (not-comparable)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.”

   “It was so cold a day that I could hardly breathe outside.”

   “So ridiculously did I do in the exam that mom grounded me for a month.”

2. (not-comparable)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.”

3. (not-comparable)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]”

   “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.”

4. (not-comparable)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 scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust.”

   “I so wanted to be Jess Harley again.”

   “Yeah! Not eating is so 90’s!”

5. (informal, not-comparable)Very much.

   “That is so not true!”

6. (not-comparable)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.”

   “"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?"”

   “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.”

7. (not-comparable)Indeed.

   “‘Look, it’s just stopped raining.’ ‘So it has!’”

   “‘There are two more.’ ‘So there are.’”

8. (not-comparable)To such an extent or degree; as.

   “so far as;  so long as;  so much as”

adj

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 known your life would not be worth a curse.””

   “The details of her own life crowded out everything else; almost every time I saw Min, she had something new to tell me. It sometimes felt as if the laws of the physical world did not apply to her, that she had only to think of something — a job switch, a breakup — to make it so. If I didn’t see her for a while, she might forget to tell me that she had quit a factory or gotten a raise, because in her mind she had already moved on.”

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.”

   “But if I had been more fit to be married, I might have made you more so too.”

   “It must be understood that while the nelumbiums are hardy, they are so only as long as the tubers are out of the reach of frost.”

3. (UK, dated, slang)Homosexual.

   “Is he so?”

intj

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...”

   “So, everyone wants to know – did you win the contest or not?”

   “So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all.”

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. (archaic)Be as you are; stand still; used especially to cows; also used by sailors.

pron

1. (demonstrative)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".”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of someone.
3. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of someone.

noun

1. A syllable used in solfège to represent the fifth note of a major scale.
2. A syllable used in solfège to represent the fifth note of a major scale.
3. (uncountable)A type of dairy product, made especially in Japan between the seventh and tenth centuries, by reducing milk by boiling it.
4. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of significant other.
5. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of shut out.
6. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of shootout.
7. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of strike out.
8. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of second-order logic.
9. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of symphony orchestra.
10. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of singlet oxygen.
11. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of standing order.
12. (plural, plural-only)A Mon-Khmer-speaking people of Laos and Thailand.
13. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of So..

name

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Stack Overflow.

   “Imagine that you were creating an application similar to SO but were writing it using web forms.”

   “SO threads are mapped back into QuestionSheets. Information collected from SO includes the answer itself, the contributor’s reputation, and the number of votes (if any) (see Fig. 5).”

   “While using a Python program to query SO’s API helps me gain a better understanding of SO’s software source code, I should note that much uncertainty regarding SO’s programmed arguments still abounds. Part of this uncertainty is a result of limits companies like SO place on programmers who wish to access their data, but a large portion also stems from my choice to use Python.”

2. A Chinese surname from Cantonese.