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What does “ke’ilu” mean in Israeli Hebrew?

כאילו (ke’ilu) literally means “as if” or “as though,” but in modern Israeli speech it has become the all-purpose filler “like.” It softens claims, marks ironic distance, and pads casual sentences the way English uses like a dozen times in a single conversation. Younger Israelis use it heavily; older Israelis sometimes complain about it.

This clip is a restaurant joke: the speaker sees a Denver steak on the menu, recognizes the name from the 1988 American cartoon Denver, the Last Dinosaur (dubbed and beloved in 1980s-90s Israel), and asks his friends, “הרגת את האחרון, כאילו?” (“you killed the last one, like?”). The ironic ke’ilu makes the line land.