defacto

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A form of de facto — In actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status.

UncommonScrabble 13

Meanings

noundefacto (plural defactos)

plural defactos

  1. alternativeAlternative form of de facto.

    1992, University of New South Wales Aboriginal Law Research Unit, Aboriginal Law Bulletin, Issue 31, unidentified page, Homicide, assault, rape, and suicide occur as a result of Aboriginal men′s fear of loss of a valued relationship and jealousy over their wives or defactos.

    3 more examples

    Demographers in Denmark call the practice of living together marriage without papers. In Australia, these couples are known as defactos

    2001, Richard T. Schaefer, Sociology: A Brief Introduction

    The police role[…]has tended to exclude a whole class of people — wives, defactos, girlfriends and daughters, or past wives, defactos and girlfriends from the protection of the criminal law, too often with tragic consequences.

    2001, Jude McCulloch, Blue Army: Paramilitary Policing in Australia, page 51

    2007, Jo Barnes, 4: Murder Followed by Suicide in Australia, 1973—1992: A research note, Diane Kholos Wysocki, Readings in Social Research Methods, page 36, Of the 250 victims in this sample, 50.4 percent were or had been in an intimate relationship with the offender (intimates are defined as present and past spouses, defactos and lovers).

Cite this entry
APA

defacto. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defacto

MLA

“defacto.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defacto. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “defacto,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defacto.

Source: defacto on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.