de factoadjective [ before noun ], adverb
uk/ˌdeɪ ˈfæk.təʊ/us/ˌdeɪ ˈfæk.toʊ/formalexisting in fact, although perhaps not intended, legal, or accepted:
The city is rapidly becoming the de facto centre of the financial world.
He's her de facto husband though they're not actually married.
English is de facto the common language of much of the world today.
If it is on British soil then it is de facto British.
Compare
de jure
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
True, real, false, and unreal
- actual
- actuality
- actually
- all that glitters is not gold idiom
- apocryphal
- faithful
- false
- falsely
- fictional
- fictitious
- glitter
- gritty
- nominal
- pretend
- proper
- properly
- properly speaking idiom
- pukka
- realistic
- well founded
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de factonoun [ C ]
uk/ˌdeɪ ˈfæk.təʊ/us/ˌdeɪ ˈfæk.toʊ/Australian English formalalso defacto a person someone lives with as a wife or a husband, although they are not married:
They've invited Joanne and her de facto for lunch on Sunday.