What's "as such" mean? And are there other expressions that have same meaning as this?

Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
"As such" acts in place of a noun to refer to the noun previously mentioned. You are considering that thing on its own and separating it from everything else. Other expressions with the same meaning are "in itself," "per se," "essentially," "by its very nature," and "in essence." Ex: There was no ice cream per se. Only cheesecake. Ex: It was a kind of lecture in essence. Ex: Is finishing in itself harming the environment? Ex: The movie was an AI gateway in essence