might-have-been
53
8.4
- noun
- /ˈmaɪt hæv bɪn/
:
lo que pudo haber sido
- I am going to be focusing on paths not taken, things that might have been done differently.
Examples
-
Do you have any idea what my life might have been like with Terry Bradshaw in the picture?
-
At an earlier stage, this conflict might have been resolvable by compromise.
Academic text (2006) -
I always thought about Doc, what he might have been, what he might become.
-
If you had lived, you might have been something special.
-
My whole life might have been something else if I'd gone on that date.
-
Again, this makes the book feel less cohesive than it might have been.
Academic text (2006) -
If he hadn't been there to run things, I might have been forced to master the necessary skills.
Fiction book (1991) -
Everything she said about Eddie might have been true.
-
And if Joshua Pearce is watching, well, he must be thinking, "What might have been?"
-
She wondered what her life might-have-been like had she married a different man.
Synonyms
1
8.8
A statement about what could have happened if things were different
Antonyms
How Likely
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Might-have-been comes from the three simple words might meaning 'possible', have meaning 'past', and been meaning 'to be'. So, a might-have-been is something that could have existed or happened in the past but did not, which is why we use it for imagined or missed results.