to the effect

English

Alternative forms

• to that effect, to this effect

Prepositional phrase

to the effect

1. With more or less the meaning of.

   Synonym: along those lines

   He was vague but said something to the effect that he'd do it soon.

   • 2026 July 4, Brittany Spanos, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce marry at New York City’s Madison Square Garden”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 13 October 2026:

     “You said something to the effect of, ‘You gotta start doing something different,’” the pop star recalled of the initial conversation with her mom.

Related terms

• or words to that effect

Translations

with the meaning of

• Danish: i retning af
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: i retning av, i den retning (to “that” effect)

  Nynorsk: i den retning (to “that” effect)

• Polish: w stylu
• Spanish: a efectos de

See also

• be like
• on the lines of

Further reading

• “to the effect that” (US) / “to the effect that” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “to the effect”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
• “to the effect that”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “to that effect”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “to this that the effect” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.