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De facto notability describes when an item is not identified in Wikipedia's existing policies as inherently notable, but an article on that item, if created, is not likely to be challenged, or, if proposed for deletion, is likely to survive. De facto notability is distinct from obvious notability in that the subject itself may not be household vocabulary, but the category to which it belongs is well known.
For example, few people know what cladosporium; Türkədi, Sabirabad; or Suat Kaya are. Cladosporium is a type of fungi, and it is agreed that all species are notable. Türkədi, Sabirabad, is a village of 2000 in Azerbaijan, and, as mentioned above, it has been accepted that all populated places are notable. And Suat Kaya is a Turkish football player, and it has been accepted that all professional athletes at the highest level are notable.
Items with de facto notability are very likely to survive a deletion proposal, even when lacking a list of references that describe them as notable. Still, notability of a subject is not a free pass to write whatever you wish about a subject, and, for the same reasons as described above, it is especially important that all content be verifiable.
On 26 March 2022, this section of an essay was removed due to outdated examples and WP:NRVE.