to all intents and purposes

1500s, English law, originally “to all intents, constructions, and purposes” (found in an act adopted under Henry VIII in 1547).

• "To all intents and purposes the case is closed."
• "This treaty is to all intents and purposes no longer viable."
• "With the arrival of the cold war, relations between the two countries (for this is, to all intents and purposes, what they became after the end of the war) were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever."
• "Have you heard the word "gadgetbahn"? It's a portmanteau coined to describe transport proposals that, to all intents and purposes, ought to be delivered using proven railway technology... and yet go out of their way to be anything but a railway."

• effectively
• essentially
• in essence
• in effect
• practically
• virtually
• TAIAP