English

Adjective

in effect ‎(not comparable)

1. Operating or functioning; in force; in play.

   Until the new guidelines come out, the old rules are still in effect.‎

2. Actually, practically.
   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

See also

• into effect
• take effect

Adverb

in effect ‎(not comparable)

1. For all practical purposes; in practice; virtually; essentially; basically.
   • Separated from the rest of Heathrow, this would, in effect, be a second airport. — The Guardian, Aug 21 2007, George Monbiot.