# the status quo

idiom · CEFR B2

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/status-quo
Updated: 2026-08-03

## Meaning

The way things currently are, especially when someone wants to keep them that way.

## Examples

- Most people here are happy with the status quo.
- The review recommended sweeping changes, and the committee voted to maintain the status quo.
- Nobody in the room was willing to defend the status quo on its merits, and it survived anyway, because every proposed alternative required somebody specific to lose something specific.

## Origin

Status quo is a fragment of a longer diplomatic formula: in statu quo ante bellum, in the state in which things were before the war. Treaties used it to specify that borders and possessions revert to their pre-war positions, and the shortened status quo ante is still used that way. The vocabulary is Roman legal Latin — status, standing or condition, is one of the load-bearing words of Roman law — but the diplomatic phrase belongs to the treaty-drafters of early modern Europe. English dropped the ante and kept the rest. The status quo now simply means how things are, and the phrase almost always appears in a sentence about whether they should stay that way: defending the status quo, challenging it, or being accused of preferring it.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.