Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

what-iffery

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: what-if-fery
IPA

25

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

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

Informal; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"[…] 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?’"

Etymology

From what-if + -ery.

Word Breakdown

Suffix: what-if

Usage

Frequently Paired Words

whataboutery

Questions

What does what-iffery mean?: Speculation as to what might have happened if things had happened differently.
Where does what-iffery come from?: From what-if + -ery.

How to pronounce what-iffery

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