Definition if
Etymology
From Middle English if, yif, yef, from Old English ġif, ġef (“if; whether, though”), 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 (“if”).
Conjunction
if
- Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that; used to introduce a condition or choice.
- (computing) In the event that a statement is true (a programming statement that acts in a similar manner).
- Supposing that; used with past or past perfect subjunctive indicating that the condition is closed.
- Supposing that; given that; supposing it is the case that.
- Although; used to introduce a concession.
- (sometimes proscribed) Whether; used to introduce a noun clause, an indirect question, that functions as the direct object of certain verbs.
- (usually hyperbolic) Even if; even in the circumstances that.
- Introducing a relevance conditional.
Noun
if (plural ifs)
- (informal) An uncertainty, possibility, condition, doubt etc.