English

Adverb

de facto ‎(not comparable)

1. (modal) In practice; in actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status.

Adjective

de facto ‎(not comparable)

1. In fact or in practice; in actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status. (Often opposed to de jure.)

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

Coordinate terms

• de jure

Translations

Alternative forms

• defacto (Australian)

Descendants

• Russian: де-фа́кто ‎(de-fákto)

Noun

de facto ‎(plural de factos)

1. (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, 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, 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.

Hyponyms

• (legally undeclared spouse): common law wife

French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin de facto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de fak.to/

Adjective

de facto m, f ‎(invariable)

1. de facto

Synonyms

• de fait

Adverb

de facto

1. de facto

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• de fato (Brazil)

Adverb

de facto (not comparable) (European orthography)

1. truly
2. indeed
3. in fact

Spanish

Adverb

de facto

1. truly
2. indeed
3. in fact