Word.ws English Dictionary

facts on the ground

facts on the ground noun: the situation in reality as opposed to in the abstract.

Noun

facts on the ground pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) The situation in reality as opposed to in the abstract.
  2. (literally, plural, plural-only) Some aspects of the situation in a particular location.
  3. (euphemistic, idiomatic, plural, plural-only) The presence of military forces in a territory, rendering moot any debate over ownership.
    • The author referred to "continued evictions and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the process of the right of return granted to Jews but not to Arabs, the so-called facts on the ground of hardening concrete over the future, over future generations of Palestinian and...2011 February 20, Harriet Sherwood, quoting Ian McEwan, “Ian McEwan attacks 'great injustice' in Israel”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Origin of facts on the ground

Back-formation from put facts on the ground.

Questions about facts on the ground

What does facts on the ground mean?
Facts on the ground means the situation in reality as opposed to in the abstract.
What part of speech is facts on the ground?
Facts on the ground is a noun.

Words near facts on the ground in the dictionary

  1. factrices
  2. factrix
  3. facts
  4. facts don't care about your feelings
  5. facts of life
  6. facts on the ground
  7. facts speak louder than words
  8. facts, no printer
  9. factsheet
  10. factsheets
  11. factual

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: facts on the ground (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-facts on the ground.ogg.

Cite this entry: “facts on the ground.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/facts_on_the_ground. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.