counterfactual.

Concerning what would be the case if some actual condition or event had been different.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• counterfactual scenario
• counterfactual analysis
• counterfactual comparison

On the page

The analysis needs a credible counterfactual estimate of employment without the subsidy.

Her counterfactual history asks what might have followed if the treaty had failed.

The comparison group was too different to support the counterfactual claim.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic. Useful for causal reasoning and historical alternatives. The imagined alternative must be justified; a counterfactual is not merely a false statement. Normally non-gradable in this sense; comparison requires a specific contextual scale. Derived family (not inflections): counterfactually; counterfactual also functions as a noun. Secondary count noun: singular counterfactual; plural counterfactuals.