counterfactual

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of counterfactual The polio vaccines prevented 29 million cases of paralytic polio between 1960 and 2021, compared with a counterfactual world with no vaccines, according to researchers’ estimates. Soph Warnes, CNN, 2 Feb. 2025 The former calls for a counterfactual view of how testing works; the latter calls for political will and policy ideas not currently in evidence. Peter Greene, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2024 From those counterfactual questions, the adult Roth spun a tour de force of memory and history. New York Times, 8 July 2024 This willingness or compulsion to present claims that are utterly counterfactual has set Trump apart from conventional candidates. Ron Elving, NPR, 14 Sep. 2024 See All Example Sentences for counterfactual
Recent Examples of Synonyms for counterfactual
Adjective
  • Kavanaugh stressed that the Court needs to remain active in taking cases and issuing stays in order to avoid letting erroneous injunctions remain in place for years on end.
    The Editors, National Review, 27 June 2025
  • Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which Abrego Garcia’s attorneys characterized as an attempt to justify his erroneous deportation.
    Ben Finley, Fortune, 27 June 2025
Adjective
  • The Levine Cava administration said those claims were untrue.
    Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 9 July 2025
  • For its part, the Department for Transport says this is untrue.
    Ian King, CNBC, 9 July 2025
Adjective
  • The document discovery in those cases revealed that France had been untruthful during the NFLPA arbitration process.
    Chris Deubert, Forbes.com, 31 May 2025
  • During the trial, prosecutors showed videos of the multiple interviews Troconis had with law enforcement and accused her of being untruthful about Farber Dulos’ disappearance.
    Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 21 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Despite the book’s suggestive title, the landscape is anything but illusory for Abbott, who grew up in Grosse Pointe and spent the first 18 years of her life there.
    Jim Ruland, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2025
  • Wells’s attempt to hold the two in balance relied on a division between art and politics, but that division is entirely illusory.
    Kamila Shamsie June 20, Literary Hub, 20 June 2025
Adjective
  • Further blurring fact from fiction is this latest approach of trying to capitalize on a TikTok viral moment by having a fictitious creator recite the words of a real creator.
    Shannon Bond, NPR, 10 July 2025
  • Senegal just ditched its plans for the singer’s multibillion-dollar smart city in the country, reminiscent of Marvel’s fictitious nation in its Black Panther franchise.
    Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 10 July 2025
Adjective
  • The Farmers' Almanac, distinct from the Old Farmer's Almanac, said weather forecasting, and long-range forecasting, in particular, remains an inexact science.
    Olivia Rose, AZCentral.com, 9 July 2025
  • The draft remains an inexact science, but the Cubs have a formula that has endured through regime changes and philosophical shifts.
    Patrick Mooney, New York Times, 9 July 2025
Adjective
  • The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, though Republican leaders dismissed the projection as inaccurate.
    Kaelan Deese, The Washington Examiner, 4 July 2025
  • And finding those homes proved challenging because many records were missing or inaccurate — some handwritten on notecards dating to the early 1900s.
    Michael Phillis, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2025
Adjective
  • There might be a bigger market for these products, and more consumers might be immune to the fallacious argument that they’re overly processed, if more people were persuaded of the ills of factory farming.
    Kenny Torrella, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • The fallacious notion that truth is in the eye of the beholder.
    Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 6 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Counterfactual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/counterfactual. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025.

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