Word.ws English Dictionary

but if

but if conjunction: unless.

Conjunction

but if

  1. (obsolete) Unless.
    • And therewithall he swange oute a swerde and seyde, ‘But yf thou telle me all who hath ben here, now shalt thou dey!’1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VIII
    • Ne living aide for her on earth appeares, / But-if the heavens helpe to redresse her wrong, / Moved with pity of her plenteous teares.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Questions about but if

What does but if mean?
But if means unless.
What part of speech is but if?
But if is a conjunction.

Words near but if in the dictionary

  1. but and ben
  2. but for
  3. but for the grace of God
  4. but good
  5. but hey
  6. but if
  7. but me no buts
  8. but seriously folks
  9. but that
  10. but then
  11. but who's counting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: but if (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.

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