"what-iffery" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "what-if",
        "3": "ery"
      },
      "expansion": "what-if + -ery",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "what-if + -ery",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "head": "what-iffery"
      },
      "expansion": "what-iffery (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -ery",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Alternate history",
          "orig": "en:Alternate history",
          "parents": [
            "History",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "All topics",
            "Fiction",
            "Genres",
            "Fundamental",
            "Artistic works",
            "Entertainment",
            "Art",
            "Culture",
            "Society"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, Yvonne Sherwood, A biblical text and its afterlives, page 209",
          "text": "[…] what if Jonah is a piece of what-iffery, a story, an experiment with words, rather than a carefully honed piece of polemic […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 January 9, Stuart Jeffries, “A prime minister in the dock”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Greg Jenner, Ask A Historian: 50 Surprising Answers to Things You Always Wanted to Know, Hachette",
          "text": "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?’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Speculation as to what might have happened if things had happened differently."
      ],
      "id": "en-what-iffery-en-noun-mmXVFalt",
      "links": [
        [
          "Speculation",
          "speculation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Speculation as to what might have happened if things had happened differently."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "whataboutery"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "what-iffery"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "what-if",
        "3": "ery"
      },
      "expansion": "what-if + -ery",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "what-if + -ery",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "head": "what-iffery"
      },
      "expansion": "what-iffery (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "whataboutery"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms suffixed with -ery",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Alternate history"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, Yvonne Sherwood, A biblical text and its afterlives, page 209",
          "text": "[…] what if Jonah is a piece of what-iffery, a story, an experiment with words, rather than a carefully honed piece of polemic […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 January 9, Stuart Jeffries, “A prime minister in the dock”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Greg Jenner, Ask A Historian: 50 Surprising Answers to Things You Always Wanted to Know, Hachette",
          "text": "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?’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Speculation as to what might have happened if things had happened differently."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Speculation",
          "speculation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Speculation as to what might have happened if things had happened differently."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "what-iffery"
}