de facto
In actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal statusIn actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status.
» Google is de facto an essential tool of the Internet.
DJ_Saidez · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(modal, not comparable)In actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status.
- in reality or fact
Examples
9 sentencesGoogle is de facto an essential tool of the Internet.
Taiwan could soon cease to exist as a de facto independent state.
Google has become the de facto gatekeeper of the web, an arbiter of what is useful and what should get visibility.
In all her pompous majesty, carried on the shoulders of the entire football team, stood the de facto queen of the school.
In absence of any stipulation regarding the capital city of Japan, strictly speaking, Tokyo is nothing more than a de facto capital.
Origin
Unadapted borrowing from Latin dē factō (literally “according to fact”), from dē (“accordiUnadapted borrowing from Latin dē factō (literally “according to fact”), from dē (“according to”) + ablative of factum (“fact, deed, act”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source