as in erroneous
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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
Apparently getting an intrinsic reward for others’ wellbeing will take coordination only so far, without counterfactual reasoning to tell you if your actions are directly responsible for others’ behavior.
—Matthew Hutson, IEEE Spectrum, 17 June 2019
See All Example Sentences for counterfactual
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
Apparently getting an intrinsic reward for others’ wellbeing will take coordination only so far, without counterfactual reasoning to tell you if your actions are directly responsible for others’ behavior.
—Matthew Hutson, IEEE Spectrum, 17 June 2019
See All Example Sentences for counterfactual
Recent Examples of Synonyms for counterfactual
Adjective
-
So that's completely erroneous.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
2 Nov. 2025
-
Grokipedia also contains some erroneous statements.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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There’s a common, but untrue, narrative that certain sets of scientific dogmas, like the Earth being stationary and the center of the Universe, could not be challenged.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
30 Oct. 2025
-
How to be ready, in the moment, to not lapse into the dream, the spell, of the untrue or (worse) the half-true?—
James Parker,
The Atlantic,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Officers making contact with Hyatt noted an odor of intoxicants, staggering gait, confusion and illogical, untruthful responses to questions, according to the motion.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
18 Aug. 2025
-
The deficient vice of integrity is being fake, untruthful, inconsistent, unprincipled, and manipulative.—
Mary Crossan,
Forbes.com,
17 July 2025
Adjective
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Elegant yet illusory, the pearls become armor for a woman determined to turn artifice into art.—
Lilah Ramzi,
Vogue,
25 Oct. 2025
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Man, woman, dog—their illusory life was over.—
Joy Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Of course, close animal encounters aren't always fictitious.—
Kelli Bender,
PEOPLE,
21 Oct. 2025
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The Half Moon Bay weigh-off began in 1974, when the California town barely edged out Circleville, Ohio, in an amiable contest for the fictitious title of pumpkin capital of the world.—
Jennifer Borresen,
USA Today,
19 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The movie devolves into something inexact and thoughtless, without anything distinct to recenter it.—
J. Kim Murphy,
Variety,
11 Oct. 2025
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Assigning lockers can be an inexact science, though.—
Charlotte Varnes,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Grokipedia, like Wikipedia, includes citations for its statements, but several users have pointed out claims with inaccurate citations.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
28 Oct. 2025
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The development group then filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court, stating the the petition language used to garner the referendum was misleading and inaccurate.—
Sydney Franklin,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
28 Oct. 2025
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Murphy said that’s misleading because many incidents never make it into official statistics.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
28 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Counterfactual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/counterfactual. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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