if

Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that; used to introduce a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false.

Conjunction

  1. Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that; used to introduce a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false.
    • If crossing the road, make sure you look both ways.
    • If I give you the money would/will you buy it for me?
    • If you prefer, I can come tomorrow instead.

    1. (computing) A keyword that invokes conditional processing: in the event that a given condition is true, execute the given statement(s) (otherwise execute other statements).

      • if A then B else C
  2. Supposing that; used with past or past perfect subjunctive to indicate a counterfactual or hypothetical condition.
    • If she hadn't told me, I wouldn't know.
    • "You would be healthier if you would give up smoking" "Well, if I were rich, I'd go to one of those hypnosis therapies to quit".
    • She could have used my car if the battery wasn't flat.

    1. (usually hyperbolic) Even if; even in the circumstances that.

      • I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth.
      • You're finishing your chowder if you sit there all afernoon!
      • “Wait a minute!” said the girl: “I wouldn’t hurry by, if it was you that was coming out to be hung, the next time eight o’clock struck, Bill. I’d walk round and round the place till I dropped, if the snow was on the...
  3. Considering the fact that; given that; introducing a condition that is known to be true.
    • The drain's blocked — and if the drain's blocked, the water won't flow.
    • O what of Gods then boots it to be borne, / If old Aveugles ſonnes ſo euill heare? - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part I (books I–III), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonbie,...
  4. When; whenever; every time that.
    • If you heat water to 100° C, it boils.
    • If it rains, it pours.
  5. Although; used to introduce a concession; may..but.
    • He was a great friend, if a little stingy at the bar.
    • She won her team's admiration, if not the award, for her performance.
    • Both Spear & Davis were indicted in the witchhunt surrounding the sensational (if nonexistent) "Revere sex ring." - 1981 April 11, Mitzel, “Kopacz Acquitted In Barbre Killing”, in Gay Community News, page 1:
  6. Whether; used to introduce a noun clause, an indirect question, that functions as the direct object of certain verbs.
    • I don't know if I want to go or not.
    • Quoth Matthew, “ […] / She doubts if two and two make four, / […] ” - 1715–1717, Matthew Prior, Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto III
    • It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway...
  7. Introducing a relevance conditional; in case.
    • I have leftover cake if you want some.
    • If you want to go home, I have the car keys.
  8. While; used to introduce a contrast.
    • If his Russian was music, his English was murder. - 1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 3.3, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 66:
    • If the outcome of the land war on the Eastern Front is usually seen as decisive, historical views on the importance of the air war are mixed. - 2015, Phillips Payson O'Brien, How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and...
    • If the Russians out-produced the Japanese in individual units, the Japanese out-produced the USSR in terms of technological quality. - 2015, Phillips Payson O'Brien, How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory...

Origin

From Middle English if, yif, yef, from Old English ġif (“if”), from Proto-West Germanic *jabu, *jabē, from Proto-Germanic *jabai (“when, if”). Cognate with Scots gif (“if, whether”), Saterland Frisian af, of (“if, whether”), West Frisian oft (“whether”), Dutch of (“or, whether, but”), Middle Low German ef, if, af, of ("if; whether"; > German Low German of), German ob (“if, whether”), Icelandic ef (“if”).

Forms

eef ifen iffen if'n

Derived

and if an if as if as if by magic as if nothing had happened as if one's life depended on it as if one's life depends on it as-if rule as if someone owns the place as if there is no tomorrow as if there's no tomorrow as if there was no tomorrow as if there were no tomorrow big if true but if claret would be port if it could correct me if I'm wrong damned if I know damned if one does and damned if one doesn't don't mind if I do elif endif even if even if one's life depended on it

Noun

  1. An uncertainty, possibility, condition, doubt etc.
    • The board can't approve this project; there are too many ifs.
    • 1709, Susannah Centlivre, The Busy Body, Act III, in John Bell (ed.), British Theater, J. Bell (1791), page 59, Sir Fran. Nay, but Chargy, if——— ¶ Miran. Nay, Gardy, no Ifs.——Have I refus'd three northern lords, two...
    • Well might Bergman add, (in his Sciographia,), “if the compariſon that has been made, &c. be juſt.” The preſent writer makes no ifs about the matter, and has ſuperadded a little inaccuracy of his own, […] - 1791...

Forms

ifs

Related

and else false or then true whether

Derived

big if ifs and ans ifs and buts no ifs, ands, or buts small if