before the fact

before the fact

English

Prepositional phrase

before the fact

1. (law) Before the commission of a crime.
2. Assumed prior to factual study; ipso facto true, good, or correct; a priori
   • 2021, Amia Srinivasan, “Preface”, in The Right to Sex, Bloomsbury:

     Feminism envisaged as a 'home' insists on commonality before the fact, pushing aside all those who would trouble its domestic idyll.

Derived terms

• accessory before the fact

Related terms

• after the fact

Further reading

• “before the fact”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “before the fact”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “before the fact”, in Collins English Dictionary.