Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The existing condition or state of affairs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of things; the way things are, as opposed to the way they could be; the existing state of affairs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the existing state of affairs

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin status quō, state in which : status, state + quō, in which, ablative of quī, which.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin status ("state") (sometimes used in the ablative "statu") + quō ("in which"), the ablative of quī ("which"). From the Latin in statu quō ante bellum erat ("the way it was before the war").

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Examples

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  • The existing state of affairs

    November 20, 2007

  • The existing condition or state of affairs

    August 28, 2013