counterfactual
/ˌkaʊntərˈfæktʃuəl/
adjective
- Relating to or expressing something that is not true or did not happen, especially as a way of imagining an alternative reality.
- Historians sometimes use counterfactual thinking to explore what might have happened if key events had gone differently.
- The novel presents a counterfactual world where the South won the Civil War.
- Counterfactual scenarios help us understand the importance of certain decisions.
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Antonyms
noun
- A statement or scenario that describes something that did not happen, often used for analysis or imagination.
- The professor asked us to write a counterfactual about the outcome of the election.
- In philosophy, counterfactuals are used to discuss causality.
- The movie is a counterfactual that imagines a world without the internet.