as in erroneous
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Recent Examples of counterfactual
Health care ethicists, for example, use this kind of counterfactual reasoning to evaluate harm and benefit, asking how a patient would have fared without an intervention.
—
Jen Zamzow, The Conversation, 17 Dec. 2025
In Dark Matter, a parallel-universe version of Chicago as a desolate wasteland is more obviously counterfactual—and thus less uncanny—than a parallel universe in which the main character’s wife had not given up her career as an artist to have children.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 26 Nov. 2025
Such speculations can be amusing and interesting but, like much counterfactual history, they cannot be tested.
—Literary Hub, 19 Nov. 2025
Ferguson, who has published a collection of counterfactual histories, is an outlier among academics.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for counterfactual
Jen Zamzow, The Conversation, 17 Dec. 2025
In Dark Matter, a parallel-universe version of Chicago as a desolate wasteland is more obviously counterfactual—and thus less uncanny—than a parallel universe in which the main character’s wife had not given up her career as an artist to have children.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 26 Nov. 2025
Such speculations can be amusing and interesting but, like much counterfactual history, they cannot be tested.
—Literary Hub, 19 Nov. 2025
Ferguson, who has published a collection of counterfactual histories, is an outlier among academics.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for counterfactual
Recent Examples of Synonyms for counterfactual
Adjective
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Judge Nicole Hopps last month increased his minimum term of incarceration to 60 years after granting his request to correct the erroneous sentence.—
Tom Olsen,
Twin Cities,
8 June 2026
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There is a widespread, but erroneous, belief that fraud is why the state Unemployment Insurance Fund is deeply in the red.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
3 June 2026
Adjective
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The caller told them a family member had been detained, which was untrue, and demanded money for legal expenses.—
Kassia Bonesteel,
CBS News,
4 June 2026
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The first is that the task of governance, always hard, gets harder when true and untrue information is fired from every cellphone tower and when the public has no political memory to speak of.—
Nathan Heller,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
Adjective
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Since 2019, state law has required law enforcement agencies that employ POST certificate holders to notify the board if a certificate holder knowingly made an untruthful statement during an internal affairs investigation, among other circumstances.—
Shelly Bradbury,
Denver Post,
8 May 2026
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These questions were raised after reporting by The New York Times in August 2024 regarding Moore’s untruthful claims about receiving the Bronze Star in Afghanistan — a story originally reported on in 2022 by FOX45’s Mikenzie Frost.—
Baltimore Sun staff,
Baltimore Sun,
26 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Visibility into workflows is partial, and where visibility is incomplete, control is illusory.—
Krupesh Bhat,
Forbes.com,
27 May 2026
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The idea that transparency offers a route to closure is already proving illusory.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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However, operators often hide behind fictitious or stolen identities and fail to comply with cease-and-desist letters; meanwhile, hosting servers are often untraceable, shielded by anonymization techniques or by being located in countries where legal enforcement is extremely difficult.—
Emma Woollacott,
Forbes.com,
27 May 2026
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He is charged with one count of unlawful voting by aliens and one count of the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under state law.—
Louis Casiano,
FOXNews.com,
19 May 2026
Adjective
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The polyester cloth was scratchy on my thighs, the fit inexact.—
Benny Peterson,
Vogue,
4 May 2026
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Predicting space weather remains a decidedly inexact science, comparable to weather forecasting decades ago on Earth.—
Meghan Bartels,
Scientific American,
31 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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But Grossman described characterizations of his wife driving drunk, racing and hitting the boys after going as fast as 82 mph in a 45-mph zone as inaccurate.—
Richard Winton,
Los Angeles Times,
9 June 2026
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Prosecutors alleged that Kroger used inaccurate calorie information on five varieties of its Carbmaster bread, both online and on the product's packaging.—
Fernando Cervantes Jr,
USA Today,
9 June 2026
Adjective
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Manny Salazar, the Police Department’s public information officer and former drone team member, said the 46-drone figure is misleading.—
Walker Armstrong,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 June 2026
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He was also booked on suspicion of making false or misleading statements to a public servant, per the records.—
Angel Saunders,
PEOPLE,
6 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Counterfactual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/counterfactual. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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