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.

He repeatedly invokes counterfactual arguments to insist that without guns there would have been no Industrial Revolution.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

That effacement tries to create a counterfactual absurdity.

From Salon • Mar. 9, 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

Overall, the counterfactual scenarios generate peak discharges at more than 70 per cent of the 516 river gauges across Germany considered in this study that exceed the record floods currently recorded there.

From Science Daily • Mar. 27, 2024

For one thing, his hyperbole was plainly counterfactual.

From Slate • Sep. 14, 2023