needless to say
- 1Clearly; obviously, used to introduce a point the speaker expects everyone already to accept.
Needless to say, the launch was delayed again once the tests failed.
The team had trained for months and, needless to say, they were furious at the decision.
Similarobviously, naturally, predictably, clearly
Oppositesurprisingly
Note
A sentence adverb with a built-in paradox: the speaker declares something not worth saying, then says it anyway. It comments on the whole clause rather than on any single word, and it usually flags a natural consequence. A new champion is happy, and for Cecil J. Allen in 1951, footplate men fighting a stiff regulator were in no happy mood. It can open the sentence or sit mid-clause, set off by commas either way.
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