How to Use as if in a Sentence

as if

conjunction
Definition of as ifnext
Synonyms for as ifnext
  • Exhale through your lips, with them positioned as if they were pursed around a straw.
    — Michael Menna, Verywell Health, 4 Nov. 2024
  • Crushes often emerge of their own volition, as if out of nowhere, or some unseen force, and land on the recipient like an unforeseen weather event.
    — Daisy Jones, Vogue, 29 Oct. 2024
  • The racket smash has become something of a circus, as if the physical destruction is a necessary part of blowing out frustration during the ebbs and flows of a game.
    — Tim Ellis, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2024
  • The sensory details of the film, set in 1950, are presented in the trailer as if being discovered and experienced for the first time.
    — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 29 Oct. 2024
  • The auto industry's struggles over these years led to high crime, municipal financial emergencies, and, as if things couldn't get worse, lead contaminated the city's water.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2024
  • The result blends in as if it's always been a part of the home.
    — Elena Donovan Mauer, Country Living, 28 July 2023
  • But acting as if those ways are to be hushed is the way of the old world.
    — Danyel Smith, Essence, 16 Oct. 2024
  • The dusty Ohtani trudged to the dugout as if marching through a nightmare.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2024
  • For men, life in the 2020s feels as if the world suddenly turned on them.
    — Bymohamed El Aassar, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2023
  • Death Skull stared at Doug as if seeing him for the first time.
    — Simon Rich, The New Yorker, 6 May 2024
  • Stafford looks as if he’s been playing with them for years.
    — Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2023
  • The video will show a pit with boots and hands that stick out of the dirt, as if intending to crawl out.
    — Maggie Levantovskaya, Longreads, 31 Aug. 2023
  • The same kind of as if they were all just built on one piece of silicon.
    — Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Mar. 2024
  • The new sign is flimsy-looking and crooked, as if it had been hit with a strong wind.
    — The New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2024
  • Her life would be stopped up, as if a blood clot had blocked the passage of blood from her heart to her body.
    — Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023
  • Bush Hager carries son Hal, who holds his nose as if there were a smell.
    — Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 29 Nov. 2023
  • Jumping from coupling to coupling as if that’s the object of the game.
    — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2023
  • My teacher wheeled the TV out of the room and began our math lesson as if all was fine.
    — Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal, Parents, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Stones, scattered across one length of lane as if thrown by a giant.
    — Christopher Cann, USA TODAY, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Within, the bridges are shaped like angular shards, and the wheels are formed as if a blast wave has hit them.
    — Elizabeth Doerr, Robb Report, 10 Jan. 2024
  • There’s an awkward pause, in which the tour guide surveys the room, as if in search of evidence to the contrary.
    — Clare Sestanovich, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023
  • For the rest of the year, Afghans are kept out of sight, quietly abandoned to their fate, as if nothing can be done.
    — Binaifer Nowrojee, TIME, 15 Aug. 2024
  • But to teach his son a lesson, Usher acted as if the teen wasn't allowed to go at first.
    — Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY, 25 Apr. 2024
  • Intifada comes from the Arabic root meaning to shake off, as if dust from a cloth.
    — Adrian Florido, NPR, 1 June 2024
  • Their mother, Bridget Hughes, was found dead in the bedroom down the hall, her body pressed against the door as if to keep the shooter out.
    — Paige Pfleger, ProPublica, 3 Nov. 2023
  • Video footage shows Roth taking out his phone and holding it as if recording.
    — Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2024
  • In fact, it can be punished in ironic ways, as if to show that obsessing over the future is the surest way to miss out on the present.
    — Peter Debruge, Variety, 26 Oct. 2024
  • There was a social media firestorm — as if there is any other kind — from the Italians.
    — John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2024
  • The young bull stood still as if incredulous that such a thing could happen.
    — Anton Money, Outdoor Life, 15 Aug. 2024
  • One elderly attendee held his hand up, as if to ward C.J. off.
    — Jenavieve Hatch, Sacramento Bee, 9 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'as if.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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