as if

conjunction

1

: as it would be if

It was as if he had lost his last friend.

2

: as one would do if

He ran as if ghosts were chasing him.

3

: that

It seemed as if the day would never end.

4

—used to say that something is not true, not possible, will not happen, etc.

"I am sure I am very affectionate," said Dora; "you oughtn't to be cruel to me, Doady!" "Cruel, my precious love! As if I would—or could—be cruel to you, for the world!"

—Charles Dickens

—sometimes used informally as an interjection to say that something suggested or claimed is impossible, incorrect, or ridiculously unlikely to be true

A simple collection of songs? As if. How about a conceptual ode to London's millennia-old history?

—Craig McLean

Big budgets? High-priced actresses? As if! The film cost a modest $13 million, a figure achieved by not casting stars, but rather stars-in-the-making …

—Nicholas Fonseca

Synonyms

• like

Examples of as if in a Sentence

she looked as if she wanted to ask one more question before we left

Recent Examples on the Web

Some possible trust income tax benefits may include: A trust can elect to treat a distribution made during the first 65 days of the following year as if actually made during the prior year. —Martin Shenkman, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025

Finding my grandfather in the census was as if someone had woken me up and handed me the dream child’s birth certificate. —Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 14 July 2025

The catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe, which rose to more than 35 feet in some places, pushed homes off their foundations and obliterated campsites and RV parks as if by dynamite. —Rick Jervis, USA Today, 13 July 2025

Agents wanted to be seen, photographed, and recorded so that everyone knows the government claims unlimited force over immigrants, as if car washers and day laborers were an existential threat. —Agustina Vergara Cid, Oc Register, 13 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for as if

• biff
• cliff
• diff
• glyph
• griff
• riff
• schiff
• skiff
• sniff
• stiff
• tiff
• whiff

Kids Definition

as if

conjunction

1

: the way it would be if

it was as if we had never left

2

: the way one would do if

they acted as if they'd never heard of us

3

: that entry 2 sense 1a

it seemed as if the day would never end