Meaning of what-iffery | Babel Free

Definitions

Speculation as to what might have happened if things had happened differently.

informal, uncountable

Examples

“[…] what if Jonah is a piece of what-iffery, a story, an experiment with words, rather than a carefully honed piece of polemic […]”

“The film's what-iffery becomes even more compelling when Blair, played, as in A Very Social Secretary, by a twitchingly reptilian Robert Lindsay, decides to stand down shortly before the 2010 general election.”

“My name is Greg Jenner, and I'm pathologically sceptical towards historical what-iffery. Let me clarify—there's nothing wrong with asking, ‘What if this hadn't happened?’”

CEFR level