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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Patients who received the erroneous letters can contact MaineHealth’s patient relations department to confirm their status — alive and well — and ensure their records remain accurate.—
Jasmine Baehr,
FOXNews.com,
6 Nov. 2025
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So that's completely erroneous.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
2 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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Alex has apparently not seen the series but has heard about it and says what viewers are watching is untrue, according to the statement.—
KC Baker,
PEOPLE,
4 Nov. 2025
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These included the claim that Barack Obama had put Clooney up to it, which Clooney said is untrue.—
Emily Zemler,
Rolling Stone,
3 Nov. 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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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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In a white Ford Expedition with exempt plates and red emergency lights, Farzam stopped at a checkpoint manned by the National Guard on January 17 and presented a document showing the vehicle was registered to the fictitious Santa Muerte Fire Department, prosecutors said.—
Ray Sanchez,
CNN Money,
2 Nov. 2025
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The film is set in a version of America that, while fictitious, still feels distinctly American.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
30 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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This way of peering at screen culture from an inexact distance, which also comes up in a scolding scene where Ethan scrolls aimlessly through something like TikTok, rankles in a play that is otherwise so precise about physical time and space.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
31 Oct. 2025
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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
Adjective
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Joy Buolamwini, a computer scientist at MIT Media Lab, has written extensively on the dangers of inaccurate and racially biased facial recognition systems.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
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The Gemini integration naturally raises concerns about the chatbot hallucinating inaccurate information.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
5 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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There is no indication that the misleading edit was politically motivated.—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
10 Nov. 2025
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Even if its 46 shots Sunday were a bit misleading, with many coming from manageable angles, that kind of volume isn’t possible without controlling possession.—
Max Bultman,
New York Times,
10 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Counterfactual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/counterfactual. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
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