if not

if not

English

Adverb

if not (not comparable)

1. Used to link a semantically weaker word to a semantically stronger word following the adverb, both sharing the same basic meaning, indicating the increased likelihood of the former.
   • 2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times‎:

     People who talk about an imminent possibility of war seldom pose this question: What would North Korea’s leadership get from unleashing a war that they are likely to lose in weeks, if not days?

Translations

Translations

Arabic: إِلَّا‎ (ar) (ʾillā) Dutch: zo niet Esperanto: se ne Finnish: ellei (fi), jos ei French: pour ne pas dire (fr), si pas, sinon (fr) Italian: se non (it) Japanese: ではないにしろ (de wa nai ni shiro) Latin: nisi (la) Polish: jeśli nie, jeżeli nie Portuguese: se não (pt), senão (pt) Russian: е́сли не (jésli ne) Spanish: si no

See also

• if not for

Anagrams

• notif