de facto
De facto is Latin for "of fact," meaning "in reality," and it's usually contrasted with "de jure," which means "of law," or "officially."
If you're the de facto mayor of your town, you’re acting as mayor, even though you weren't legally elected. You may be just helping out while the official mayor — the de jure mayor, the person who was officially elected — is out of town or ill. Or it might be more sinister — you seized power from the true mayor and locked him in the basement of town hall, and now you’ve made yourself the de facto mayor.
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existing in fact whether with lawful authority or not
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in reality or fact“the result was, de facto, a one-party system”
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Vocabulary lists containing de facto
During a Hanukkah vacation on the island of Nantucket, sixteen-year-old Shira Barbanel makes a deal with Tyler Nelson to give her flirting lessons in exchange for an introduction to her media executive great-uncle.
When sixteen-year-old Harrison Meredith finds out that his best friend Linus Munro is moving away, he plans a surprise day of adventures.
Following a wave of antisemitic attacks, fifteen-year-old Orthodox Jew Hoodie Rosen faces the ire of his family and community when he falls in love with a non-Jewish girl.
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