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

• as
• as though
• 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

Intertwined with the Ochi noises is David Longstreth’s transfixing score, which rings so brightly ethereal as if truly comprised from sounds captured in the forest. —Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 27 Jan. 2025

Next to him sits Freud, wearing a suit and tie and looking down at the table, as if set apart from everything around him. —Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025

Astonishingly, over half of the participants didn't notice the swap, continuing the conversation as if nothing had happened. —Joel Thayer, Newsweek, 27 Jan. 2025

The Anatolian mountains, where Ali tends to a barren garden, provide a sinister backdrop from which anything, not just a vagabond dropped as if from the sky, can suddenly appear. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 25 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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