as if
UK/ˌæz‿ˈɪf/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
unstressed/əz‿ˈɪf/
as if conjunction: as though; in a manner suggesting.
Conjunction
as if
- As though; in a manner suggesting.
- The old man stumbled, as if he were about to fall.
- It looks as if it's going to rain.
- Synonyms:
- like
- In mimicry of.
- When the teacher’s back was turned, the class clown would hold his stomach as if he were ill.
- Indicating something that the speaker deems very unlikely, or is adamant that he or she would not do (see also interjection sense below).
- How can you even think that? As if I would inform on you to the police!
Interjection
- Indicates that the speaker deems something highly unlikely.
- "I'm going to clean your whole house." — "As if!"
- Me, take up yoga and become a vegetarian? As if!
as if meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Punjabi
as if in Hindi
- as though
- मानो māno
- interjection
- घंटा ghaṇṭā, अजी हाँ ajī hā̃
as if in Tamil
- as if
- போல் pōl
as if in Urdu
- as if, as though
- مانو māno
as if in Punjabi
- as if, as though
- ਜਿਵੇਂ jivẽ
More languagesFewer languages
- as if in Gujarati
- જાણે jāṇe
- as if in Assamese
- যেন zen
- as if in Arabic
- كَأَنَّ kaʔanna, كَأَنَّمَا kaʔannamā
- as if in Indonesian
- seakan-akan, seolah-olah
- as if in Persian
- انگار engâr, مثل اینکه mesl-e inke
- as if in Thai
- เหมือน mʉ̌ʉan, เหมือนกับว่า, ราวกับ, ราวกับว่า
- as if in Vietnamese
- tựa hồ
Examples of as if in a sentence
- She jumped all of a sudden, as if stung.
- I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow — a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, […]1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
- “[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page...
- It was as if the world had never touched him at all.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 9, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
Synonyms of as if
Origin of as if
From Middle English as ȝif, alls iff (“as if”), from Old English *ealswā ġif, attested only as swā ġif (“as if”), equivalent to as + if. Compare Saterland Frisian as of (“as if”), Dutch alsof (“as if”), Low German as of (“as if”), German als ob (“as if”).
Words formed from as if
Words that rhyme with as if
Questions about as if
- What does as if mean?
- As if means as though; in a manner suggesting.
- What is as if in Hindi?
- As if in Hindi is मानो (māno), घंटा (ghaṇṭā), अजी हाँ (ajī hā̃). See As if meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use as if in a sentence?
- She jumped all of a sudden, as if stung.
- What part of speech is as if?
- As if can be a conjunction or an interjection.
- How do you pronounce as if?
- As if is pronounced /ˌæz‿ˈɪf/ (UK).
Words near as if in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: as if (page history and authors); போல் (Tamil) (page history and authors); مانو (Urdu) (page history and authors); ਜਿਵੇਂ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); যেন (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-as if.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-as if.wav.
Cite this entry: “as if.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/as_if. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.