"as if" meaning in English

See as if in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Preposition

Forms: as if
Head templates: {{preposition}} [POS TABLE]
  1. In the same way that it would be if.
    Sense id: simple-as_if-en-prep-kWP40IRC
  2. Used in exclamations to say that something is not true.
    Sense id: simple-as_if-en-prep-VvOwsvv2
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "as if",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Preposition"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "preposition"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It could look as if we're trying to hide something."
        },
        {
          "text": "She acts as if she hates me."
        },
        {
          "text": "It's as if we were in jail or something."
        },
        {
          "text": "As if this wasn't bad enough, now you get hurt."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In the same way that it would be if."
      ],
      "id": "simple-as_if-en-prep-kWP40IRC"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "\"I'm not going to help anymore.\" \"As if you were helping before!\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used in exclamations to say that something is not true."
      ],
      "id": "simple-as_if-en-prep-VvOwsvv2"
    }
  ],
  "word": "as if"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "as if",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Preposition"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "preposition"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It could look as if we're trying to hide something."
        },
        {
          "text": "She acts as if she hates me."
        },
        {
          "text": "It's as if we were in jail or something."
        },
        {
          "text": "As if this wasn't bad enough, now you get hurt."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In the same way that it would be if."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "\"I'm not going to help anymore.\" \"As if you were helping before!\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used in exclamations to say that something is not true."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "as if"
}

Download raw JSONL data for as if meaning in English (0.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-02 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (db8a5a5 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.