if

alternative eef · alternative ifen · alternative iffen · alternative if'n

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

   I'll do it next week if I have time.

   3 more examples

   Fetch me a cold beer if there's one in the fridge.

   If I give you the money, will you buy it for me?

   If you prefer, I can come tomorrow instead.

   1. computingA 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.

   3 more examples

   If he understood how this made me feel right now, he'd be O.K. with it too.

   If I was King of England, I'd make you my Queen.

   She could have used my car if the battery hadn't been flat.

   1. excessiveusuallyEven if; even in the circumstances that.

      I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth.

      3 more examples

      You're finishing your chowder if you sit there all afternoon!

      “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 ground, and I hadn’t a shawl to cover me.”

      1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC

      If it’s the last thing I do / If it takes me from Tubilo to Timbuktu / If it’s the last thing I do / I’m gonna dodge every road block, speed trap, county cop / To get my hands on you / If it’s the last thing I do.

      2004, David Lee Murphy and Kim Tribble (writers), Montgomery Gentry (singers), “If It’s The Last Thing I Do” (song), in You Do Your Thing (album)

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.

   1 more example

   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, →OCLC, stanza ii, page 66

4. When; whenever; every time that.

   If it rains, it pours.

   1 more example

   If you heat water to 100° C, it boils.

5. Although; used to introduce a concession; may..but.

   He was a great friend, if a little stingy at the bar.

   2 more examples

   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. literaryWhile; used to introduce a contrast.

   If tea is expensive, coffee is completely unaffordable.

   5 more examples

   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 Allied Victory in World War II, page 8

   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 in World War II, page 65

   If the Americans knew how they wanted to use strategic air power but not what to attack, the British had a huge number of plans about what to attack but almost no means to adequately deliver the necessary blow.

   2015, Phillips Payson O'Brien, How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, page 103

   If the Poles resisted imperial rule, the Ukrainians threatened the unity of the “reunified” Catherinian empire by claiming an identity distinct from the Russian.

   2023, Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, page 17

7. proscribedsometimesWhether; 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.

   2 more examples

   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 trains […]

   1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117

8. Introducing a relevance conditional; in case.

   I have leftover cake if you want some.

   1 more example

   If you want to go home, I have the car keys.

plural ifs

1. informalAn uncertainty, possibility, condition, doubt etc.

   The board can't approve this project; there are too many ifs.

   3 more examples

   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 British peers, and half a score knights, to have put in your Ifs?

   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 January, “Richardſon’s Chemical Principles of the Metallic Arts”, in The Monthly Review, R. Griffiths, page 176

   Even if they managed to strike Japan, the United States or South Korea with nuclear weapons — a big if, given that they do not have a reliable delivery system — they could not save themselves from ultimate defeat.

   2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times

plural IFs

1. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of interactive fiction.

   The “Zarfian Cruelty Scale” rates games as Merciful, Polite, Tough, Nasty, or Cruel. The scale describes how works of IF become unwinnable, especially how and when the interactor (here a player, and one trying to win) learns this.

   2007, Jeremy Douglass, Command Lines, page 88

2. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableInitialism of impact factor.
3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebiochemistryInitialism of intermediate filament.
4. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebusinessInitialism of intermediate frequency.
5. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablenutritionInitialism of intermittent fasting.
6. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableimmunologyInitialism of immunofluorescence.
7. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablegymnasticsInitialism of international federation.