diff --git a/include/nlohmann/detail/macro_scope.hpp b/include/nlohmann/detail/macro_scope.hpp
index bd36048f1..111b4eeef 100644
--- a/include/nlohmann/detail/macro_scope.hpp
+++ b/include/nlohmann/detail/macro_scope.hpp
@@ -20,15 +20,18 @@
 #endif
 
 // C++ language standard detection
-#if (defined(__cplusplus) && __cplusplus >= 202002L) || (defined(_MSVC_LANG) && _MSVC_LANG >= 202002L)
-    #define JSON_HAS_CPP_20
-    #define JSON_HAS_CPP_17
-    #define JSON_HAS_CPP_14
-#elif (defined(__cplusplus) && __cplusplus >= 201703L) || (defined(_HAS_CXX17) && _HAS_CXX17 == 1) // fix for issue #464
-    #define JSON_HAS_CPP_17
-    #define JSON_HAS_CPP_14
-#elif (defined(__cplusplus) && __cplusplus >= 201402L) || (defined(_HAS_CXX14) && _HAS_CXX14 == 1)
-    #define JSON_HAS_CPP_14
+// if the user wants to manually specify the used c++ version this is skipped
+#ifndef JSON_VERSION_IS_PREDEFINED
+    #if (defined(__cplusplus) && __cplusplus >= 202002L) || (defined(_MSVC_LANG) && _MSVC_LANG >= 202002L)
+        #define JSON_HAS_CPP_20
+        #define JSON_HAS_CPP_17
+        #define JSON_HAS_CPP_14
+    #elif (defined(__cplusplus) && __cplusplus >= 201703L) || (defined(_HAS_CXX17) && _HAS_CXX17 == 1) // fix for issue #464
+        #define JSON_HAS_CPP_17
+        #define JSON_HAS_CPP_14
+    #elif (defined(__cplusplus) && __cplusplus >= 201402L) || (defined(_HAS_CXX14) && _HAS_CXX14 == 1)
+        #define JSON_HAS_CPP_14
+    #endif
 #endif
 
 // disable documentation warnings on clang