Idiom
facts on the ground
Meaning
The situation in reality as opposed to in the abstract.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We must look at the facts on the ground before deciding.”
“The government's official report ignores the facts on the ground that local residents face every day.”
“Diplomats often struggle to reconcile their theoretical peace proposals with the harsh facts on the ground in the conflict zone.”
Examples
simple
“We must look at the facts on the ground before deciding.”
contextual
“The government's official report ignores the facts on the ground that local residents face every day.”
complex
“Diplomats often struggle to reconcile their theoretical peace proposals with the harsh facts on the ground in the conflict zone.”
Origin
A back-formation from the verb phrase to put facts on the ground.
Key words
Related idioms
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