Definition of "matter-of-fact" []

• Relating or adhering to facts; literal. (adjective)
• Straightforward or unemotional: "the matter-of-fact tones in which the local guides describe the history of the various places” ( New York Times). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Just as the form and color of the stop sign seem matter-of-fact yet are linked to rich visual cultures, so too is its verbal STOP deceptively simple."
• "The matter-of-fact relaying of the rise and fall of the Raj the British rule recalls the grade-school history textbooks that gave the barest outline of historical events but withheld the extremes of human experience that were the fallout of those events, to be revealed to us when we were older and could better handle the ugly truth."
• ""I just didn't like the atmosphere, or the matter-of-fact staff.""