Word.ws English Dictionary

what-ifs

what-ifs is the plural of what-if.

what-ifs is the third-person singular simple present indicative of what-if.

Meaning of what-if

Noun

what-if (plural what-ifs)

  1. (informal) A speculation as to what might have happened if something else had happened earlier.
    • Each man was running over the what ifs in his mind.2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, page 199
  2. (informal) A hypothetical case or situation, usually evoked by a sense of anxiety or uncertainty.

See all 3 meanings of what-if

Questions about what-ifs

What is what-ifs the plural of?
What-ifs is the plural of what-if.

Words near what-ifs in the dictionary

  1. what-have-you
  2. what-if
  3. what-iffed
  4. what-iffery
  5. what-iffing
  6. what-ifs
  7. what-it's-like-ness
  8. what-it's-likeness
  9. what-like
  10. what-not
  11. what-not shop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: what-ifs (page history and authors); what-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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