IF NOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does if not mean? 

• IF NOT (adverb)
  The adverb IF NOT has 1 sense:

1. perhaps; indicating possibility of being more remarkable (greater or better or sooner) than

  Familiarity information: IF NOT used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IF NOT (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Perhaps; indicating possibility of being more remarkable (greater or better or sooner) than

Context example:

let's meet tonight if not sooner

 Context examples 

His value of her was sincere; and, if not permanently, he was truly afflicted by her death.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It is not cancer, but may become cancer and spread to nearby normal tissue if not treated.

(Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2/3, NCI Dictionary)

She charm me, and for her, if not for you or disease, I come.'

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He is younger than I am; younger in feeling, if not in fact; younger as a man.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

If not, you will have a second chance to find out all that is available in February and March.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia 2 is not cancer, but may become cancer and spread to nearby normal tissue if not treated.

(Cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia 2, NCI Dictionary)

And the morning wore away in satisfactions very sweet, if not very sound.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Aye, for a good long time, he said, shaking his head; if not to this present hour.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But you will, for the sake of others, if not for your own.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Researchers were surprised when they uncovered a galaxy that is missing most, if not all, of its dark matter.

(Dark Matter Goes Missing in Oddball Galaxy, NASA)