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
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Engineers outfitted the device with a heater to melt ice in the winter, a customization that should improve accuracy during Arizona’s freeze-thaw cycles that have long created erroneous measurements.—
Hayleigh Evans,
AZCentral.com,
2 Oct. 2025
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Vedra and other debt law experts said a high rate of default judgments indicates a system that favors the pursuers over the pursued — and increases the chances someone will be harmed by an erroneous bill.—
Rae Ellen Bichell,
Fortune,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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These claims are not only untrue — they are being weaponized to damage my reputation and distract from the truth.—
Christina Dugan Ramirez , Tracy Wright,
FOXNews.com,
10 Oct. 2025
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The campaign slammed her words and accusations as inappropriate and untrue.—
Washington Examiner Staff,
The Washington Examiner,
10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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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
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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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Yet these successes were at best partial, and perhaps illusory.—
JENNIFER KAVANAGH,
Foreign Affairs,
30 Sep. 2025
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Everyone has their own analogy to describe Labour’s illusory power.—
Sam Knight,
New Yorker,
21 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Nicolas Cage was rumored to be interested in playing Charlie and his fictitious twin, Donald.—
Susan Orlean,
New Yorker,
11 Oct. 2025
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However fictitious, these uplifting moments are currently missing from our real-life news cycle.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Assigning lockers can be an inexact science, though.—
Charlotte Varnes,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
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The film stages its riot of activity as hard-nosed honesty, but its portrait is ultimately as ginned-up and inexact as the fictional news broadcast’s lurid prying.—
Richard Lawson,
IndieWire,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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By state law, attorneys general can only alter or withdraw their opinions if state law changes and renders the opinion inaccurate, or a public court finding has the same effect.—
Vivian Jones,
Nashville Tennessean,
9 Oct. 2025
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As gaming becomes a more mainstream activity, however, these stereotypes grow more archaic, and a new study from the Entertainment Software Association suggests that the universal image of a gamer as a lonely young male is not just outdated, but inaccurate.—
Andrew McGowan,
Variety,
8 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Despite these accounts, Day offered a very different picture in an opinion piece published by The Oregonian on Sunday, arguing that national media coverage of Portland and its police paint a misleading and outdated picture.—
Greg Wehner,
FOXNews.com,
6 Oct. 2025
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The apparent protective effect of dopamine agonist drugs could also be misleading.—
Maria Morava,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Counterfactual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/counterfactual. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.
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