counterfactual

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It’s a choice that holds up well against a counterfactual life given over to hobbies and travel.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 11, 2025

We can't be certain because the results depend heavily on the method chosen by researchers for measuring the "counterfactual", i.e what would have happened to UK exports had the country stayed in the EU.

From BBC • Jan. 30, 2025

Four extremely strong typhoons that made landfall on the Korean Peninsula between 2011 and 2020 were chosen for simulation under current climate condition and counterfactual condition without human-induced warming.

From Science Daily • Dec. 29, 2023

For projects claiming to avoid emissions, it's difficult to prove the counterfactual: Would a given forest really have been cut down without the offset project?

From Salon • Apr. 12, 2023

Of course, no counterfactual or hypothetical reconstruction of how people from the past might have approached or performed an intellectual task can predict what they certainly would have done.

From Slate • Feb. 15, 2023