de facto

See also: defacto

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

de facto

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin dē factō (literally “according to fact”), from dē (“according to”) + ablative of factum (“fact, deed, act”).

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdeɪˈfæktəʊ/, /dɪˈfæktəʊ/, /ˌdiːˈfæktəʊ/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˌdeɪˈfæktoʊ/, /dəˈfæktoʊ/, /ˌdiˈfæktoʊ/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Audio (US): (file)

Adverb

de facto (not comparable)

(modal) In actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status.
Synonyms: in fact, in practice, factually, practically

Coordinate terms: de jure, legally, legalistically; see also Thesaurus:actually

Adjective

de facto (not comparable)

In actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status.
Coordinate terms: de jure; real, true; see also Thesaurus:genuine

Although the United States currently has no official language, it is largely monolingual with English being the de facto national language.

While it is largely recognized that Ukraine holds de jure sovereignty on Crimea, Russia exercises de facto administration on the peninsula.
- 1995, David Wolff, “Russia Finds Its Limits: Crossing Borders into Manchuria”, in Stephen Kotkin, David Wolff, editors, Rediscovering Russia in Asia : Siberia and the Russian Far East‎^[1], M.E. Sharpe, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 45:
  To avoid conflicts (and associated delays and distractions) with other ministries' minions in Vladivostok, Chief Engineer Iugovich moved his headquarters to Harbin in 1898. Within fifteen years, a transportation hub with more than 100,000 inhabitants had sprung up. Its size and importance were commensurate with its de facto role as the provincial capital of Russian Manchuria.
- 2021 November 18, “Taiwan deploys first advanced F-16V fighter squadron”, in France 24‎^[2], archived from the original on 18 November 2021:
  Taiwan held a ceremony on Thursday to commission the first squadron of its most advanced F-16 fighter, a US-made jet that will strengthen the island's defences against threats by China.
  President Tsai Ing-wen oversaw the ceremony at an air base in the southern city of Chiayi alongside Sandra Oudkirk, Washington's de facto ambassador to Taiwan.

Alternative forms

defacto (Australian)

Derived terms

de facto corporation

Descendants

Russian: де-фа́кто (de-fákto)

Translations

in fact or in practice

Arabic: بحكم الأمر الواقع
Armenian: փաստորեն (hy) (pʻastoren), դե ֆակտո (hy) (de fakto)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 事實上 / 事实上 (zh) (shìshíshàng), 實質上 / 实质上 (zh)
Corsican: de facto, di fattu
Dutch: de facto (nl)
Esperanto: laŭfakte (adverb), laŭfakta (adjective)
Finnish: de facto (fi), tosiasiallisesti (fi)
French: de facto (fr), de fait (fr)
Galician: de facto (gl), de feito (gl)
German: de facto (de)
Greek: εκ των πραγμάτων (el) (ek ton pragmáton), ντε φάκτο (el) (nte fákto)
Ido: aktuala (io)
Japanese: デファクト (defakuto), 事実上の (ja) (じじつじょうの, jijitsujō no)
Persian: دفاکتو (de-fâkto), بالفعل (fa) (belfe'l)
Polish: de facto (pl)
Russian: де-фа́кто (ru) (dɛ-fákto), факти́ческий (ru) (faktíčeskij)
Spanish: de facto, de fecho, de hecho
Swedish: de facto (sv)
Turkish: defakto (tr), fiilen (tr) (adverb), fiilî (tr) (adjective)

Noun

de facto (plural de factos)

(Australia, New Zealand) A legally undeclared spouse; a partner in a spousal relationship which is not officially declared as a marriage, comparable to a common law husband or wife.
- 1984, Sotirios Sarantakos, Living Together in Australia‎^[3], page 141:
  One of the vendors was simple and straight; he said that it was his policy not to rent a house to de factos.
- 1984, Australian Senate, Senate Weekly Hansard‎^[4], volume 105, page 2213:
  An incidental sideline to this little farce, I suppose we can call it, is that the Opposition, in this policy, seems to have reversed its so often stated policy in this place on de factos.
- 2008, David de Vaus, Chapter 15: Australian Families: Social and Demographic Patterns, in Charles B. Hennon, Stephan M. Wilson (editors), Families in a Global Context, 2011, page 383,
  The parental rights and responsibilities of de factos are the same as for legally married parents but, because property and maintenance of de factos is a state responsibility, there are differences between married and de factos in some states.