How to Use if not in a Sentence

if not

phrase
  • Industry experts are betting on at least two dresses, if not more.
    — Rosemary Feitelberg, Footwear News, 2 July 2026
  • Saving tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes each year.
    — David Rae, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • That said, rookies — if not immediately ready — can be a detriment to any team.
    — Miami Herald, 1 July 2026
  • Gardner’s ideal bite features smoke balanced by the texture of a good char, which honors meat that has been cooking for hours, if not days.
    — Joseph Hernandez, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 July 2026
  • Experts agreed the situation could have been much worse if not for thousands of evacuations from the area.
    — Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 29 June 2026
  • To represent so many things to so many people might seem shallow, if not blithely opportunistic.
    — Jonathon Keats, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • In reality, staff members for the three parties handle most, if not all, of the back of forth negotiations to get there.
    — Taryn Luna, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2026
  • This starts with realistic, if not conservative, estimates of your sales cycle length.
    — Kate Morgan, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding is shaping up to be one of the biggest events of the year – if not the decade or century.
    — Bryan West, USA Today, 30 June 2026
  • Better known among seasoned riders as the Triple Nickel, the route makes for one of the most crooked roads in the Midwest, if not the country.
    — Condé Nast Traveler, 2 July 2026
  • So from that point of view, the chance of GJ 3378b being habitable, if not inhabited, seems fair.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 2 July 2026
  • Each of these micro events can introduce uncertainty or frustration if not handled thoughtfully.
    — Guy Yehiav, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • Greer had hoped for the potential to stay with the Panthers, but Florida knew the money situation would be tight if not impossible.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026
  • Managers typically make an effort to get most if not all of the prospects one each roster in the game, often limiting pitchers to one inning or less of work with hitters often getting pinch hit for at some point.
    — Sean Campbell, Sacbee.com, 2 July 2026
  • If the body’s temperature keeps on rising, heat exhaustion or heat stroke can develop, the latter being a life-threatening emergency if not quickly addressed.
    — Victoria Forster, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • An argument if not for the uniqueness of American as a language, then at least for the literary vision of the people who speak in English within the borders of that new nation.
    — Literary Hub, 1 July 2026
  • Accurately estimating the population would require hundreds, if not thousands, more tagged snakes, but that’s not practical with an invasive species.
    — Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald, 2 July 2026
  • Stone said Yang will appeal the ruling, and, if not successful, will continue to seek relief at the Illinois Supreme Court, and then at the federal level.
    — Clifford Ward, Chicago Tribune, 29 June 2026
  • Expecting the hoopla surrounding Emerson to be as frenzied, if not more so, Greer arranged a lunch with Witt, whose father played with him in the majors 30 years earlier.
    — Dan Hayes, New York Times, 1 July 2026
  • Rabies is almost always fatal in humans if not treated quickly with postexposure prophylaxis, or PEP.
    — Anders Hagstrom, FOXNews.com, 2 July 2026
  • That would make most if not all those cars Polestar 4s, since the 2026 Polestar 3 wasn’t sold in America as the automaker planned to skip to 2027 for that model.
    — Joel Feder, The Drive, 1 July 2026
  • Since 2020, society has increasingly normalized, if not rewarded, for making openly hostile racial comments about White people.
    — Bobby Burack Outkick, FOXNews.com, 2 July 2026
  • Everything was at stake for the Los Angeles Lakers, but as free agency started Monday, the organization seemed stuck in neutral — if not moving backward in reverse.
    — Dan Woike, New York Times, 2 July 2026
  • Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the autocrat who ruled the country in the mid-twentieth century, commissioned modern architectural projects to project an image of the country as, if not progressive, at the very least progressing.
    — Armando Ledezma, New Yorker, 30 June 2026
  • The 19-year-old could have also had a chance to fight for the win yesterday in Spielberg if not for a shaky start to the race and a less-than-ideal qualifying position, managing 15 points for his P3 finish at the end.
    — Yara Elshebiny, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • Most, if not all, were believed to have been transported to the hotel in La Guaira by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service to undergo security checks.
    — Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'if not.' 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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