go without saying
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To be obviously true or expected
Literally: to proceed without verbal expression
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
It goes without saying that developing and emerging - market countries no longer look at the advanced countries as they once did.
‘ Limos, aides, redecorating dressing - rooms, flowers and champagne go without saying.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “go without saying” mean?
To be obviously true or expected Literally: to proceed without verbal expression
Is “go without saying” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.