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

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

For one thing, his hyperbole was plainly counterfactual.

From Slate • Sep. 14, 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