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

Early on, cinematographer Sten-Johan Lil captures ethereal wide shots of the lake, where the pale water and a sky covered in pillowed white clouds nearly blend into each other, only separated by a blurred horizon line, as if heaven and earth had at last become one. —Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 28 Dec. 2024

Arkansas, as if channelling Charles Portis himself, has a state cooking vessel (the Dutch oven). —Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2024

It is filled with hundreds of minute figures — human, divine, everything in between — most at quiet attention (the saints of Siena would feel comfortable here), as if gathered for a stadium-scale yoga class. —Holland Cotter, New York Times, 26 Dec. 2024

Instead, questions are framed as if the adults are lost. —Deanne Revel, Southern Living, 26 Dec. 2024

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