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

These so-called counterfactual scenarios are alternative possibilities for past events, i.e. scenarios that did not occur but could have happened.

From Science Daily • Mar. 27, 2024

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