counterfactual

• A more literal translation would have been Ik dacht dat ik mensen had 'I thought I had people', but this implies a counterfactual ('but it turned out I didn't have anyone'), which is not exactly what we're after.
• In 1990, if you said, "The ideal for a child is a marriage mom and dad," many scholars, reporters, policymakers, and writers vigorously contested the idea; the counterfactual or contest response was, "Single mothers are just as good as married mothers, and the idea that marriage is special hurts women's freedom." —  The Corner
• A population with a different distribution of alcohol consumption and diabetes prevalence from Western populations was studied as a counterfactual comparison. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
• By adopting such an approach, one can hope not only to obtain a different, renewed historical vision, but also to create a sort of "counterfactual" history likely to allow testing of the hypotheses that have been produced to explain such historical developments. —  PLoS Biology: New Articles
• Imagine this counterfactual: George W. Bush (or maybe a victorious John McCain) sat down before his first inauguration with Paul Krugman, E.J. Dionne, and Frank Foer. —  The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

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