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

Four minutes later, the car was seen driving past again a little slower, almost as if the driver was searching for something. —Doc Louallen, ABC News, 7 Feb. 2025

But even if that’s true, fans are justified to call out a response that normalizes Trump’s current behavior as if this were any other president. —Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 7 Feb. 2025

As fresh, amusing, and full of beds as if the scene were laid on Long Island. —The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2025

Angela works at a strip club where women’s clothes come off not through dances but via jump cuts; their faces are expressionless and their bodies immobile, as if they’ve been reduced to deadpan pin-up poses. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 7 Feb. 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