the

 

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• (when stressed)
  • enPR: thē, IPA^(key): /ˈðiː/

  • Audio (UK):

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  • Audio (US):

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  • Rhymes: -iː
    • (variant, preconsonantal) enPR: thŭ, IPA^(key): /ˈðʌ/
• (when unstressed and prevocalic)
  • enPR: thē, IPA^(key): /ði/, /ðɪ/
• (when unstressed and preconsonantal)
  • enPR: thə, IPA^(key): /ðə/ (but see notes below)

  • Audio (Canada):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

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  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

From Middle English þe, from Old English þē m (“the, that”, demonstrative pronoun), a late variant of sē, the s- (which occurred in the masculine and feminine nominative singular only) having been replaced by the þ- from the oblique stem.

the

1. Used before a noun phrase, including a simple noun
   1. The definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that the noun phrase it immediately precedes is definitely identifiable
      1. because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter. [from 10th c.]

         I’m reading the book Mary reviewed. (Compare I’m reading a book Mary reviewed.)

         You live on Main Street, don't you? You know, you should tell the mayor the street needs cleaning.

         The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird.

         The street that runs all the way through my hometown.

         • 2016, VOA Learning English‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 September 2017:

           I sleep in the bedroom!

      2. because it is presumed to be definitely known in context or from shared knowledge
         1. Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. [from 10th c.]

            No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe.

            God save the Queen!

            • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 1:8, column 2:

              I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

         2. Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar. [from 12th c.]

            No one in the whole country had seen it before.

            I don't think I'll get to it until the morning.

            Take me to the airport/station/hospital/office/park/match/meeting.

         3. Used before a body part, a family member, a pet (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. [from 12th c.]

            A stone hit him on the head. (= “A stone hit him on his head.”)

            How's the wife? (= "How is your wife?")

         4. (colloquial) Precedes a familiar nickname or other term of address.

            How's the Sal today?

            "How are you, Sal?"

         5. Used in many idiomatic expressions and proverbs to refer to common objects, roles, or situations connected with something definite, as by analogy

            square the circle; feel the pinch; beat around the bush; throw the baby out with the bathwater

   2. When stressed, indicates that it describes something which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. [from 18th c.]

      That is the hospital to go to for heart surgery.

      • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

        "Good Heavens, man! Why, he is the authority. If you want pure laboratory experiments those are the books."

      • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[2]:

        “New Kid On The Block” doubles as a terrific showcase for the Sea Captain who, in the grand tradition of Simpsons supporting characters, quickly goes from being a stereotype to an archetype, from being a crusty sea-captain character to the crusty sea-captain character.

   3. Used before a noun phrase beginning with superlative or comparative adjective or an ordinal number, indicating that the noun refers to a single item.

      That was the juiciest apple pie ever.

      May the better man win.

   4. Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. [from 9th c.]
      • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 536:

        Stern and God-fearing, the Afrikaner takes his religion seriously.

      The downy woodpecker can be found in the same environments as the hairy woodpecker.

   5. Used with the plural of a surname to indicate the entire family.

      The Bushes have held political office for several decades and the Kennedys longer.

2. Used with an adjective
   1. Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive. [from 9th c.]

      That apple pie was the best.

   2. Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. [from 9th c.]

      Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

      One doesn't choose the color of one's chess pieces, the white are assigned to the player who moves first.

   3. Used before a demonym to refer to people of a given country collectively.

      the Chinese

      the Irish

• da (d'), teh (informal or dialectal)
• de (eye dialect, AAVE)
• t' (Northern England)
• th' (poetic, usually before a vowel sound)
• ye (archaic), y^e (archaic, abbreviation), yͤ (archaic, abbreviation)
• ẏe (obsolete), ẏ^e (obsolete, abbreviation)

• le

From Middle English the, thy, thi, from Old English þē̆, probably a neuter instrumental form ("by that, thereby")—alongside the more common þȳ and þon—of the demonstrative pronoun sē ("that"). Compare Dutch des te ("the, the more"), German desto ("the, all the more"), Norwegian fordi and Norwegian av di ("because"), Icelandic því (“the; because”), Faroese tí, Swedish ty.

the (not comparable)

1. With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives.

   The hotter(,) the better. (comma usually omitted in such very short expressions)

   The more I think about it, the weaker it looks.

   The more money donated, the more books purchased, and the more happy children.

   It looks weaker and weaker, the more I think about it.

2. With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none.

   It was a difficult time, but I’m the wiser for it.

   It was a difficult time, and I’m {none - not any} the wiser for it.

   I'm much the wiser for having had a difficult time like that.

3. (with a superlative adjective) Beyond all others.

   We went the furthest under her leadership.

   They trusted him the most.

This is called the "comparative correlative", but it is also known as the "correlative construction", the "conditional comparative", or the "the...the construction".

• nevertheless
• nonetheless

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

the

1. For each; per.

   valued at half a pound the bushel; paying seven dollars the year interest

   • 1837, James Edward Alexander, Narrative of a Voyage of Observation Among the Colonies of Western Africa, in the Flag-ship Thalia; and of a Campaign in Kaffir-land, on the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, in 1835, volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, pages 251–2:

     Next morning I was up at an early hour, to see the market held near the water gate. The beef was excellent: but at the high prices of ten-pence and one shilling the pound; mutton at the same price; fowls a dollar the couple, and showing “more feathers than flesh.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:the.

the

1. Obsolete form of thee.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Actes off the Apostles xxvj:[24], folio cxcv, recto:

     Feſtus ſayde with a lowde voyce: Paul / thou arte beſides thy ſilfe. Moche learnynge hath made the mad.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

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the (uncountable)

1. A topology name.

• “the”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• eth-, Eth., TEH, teh, ETH, Eth, het, EHT, HET, eth, Teh, -eth

From Proto-Germanic *sa.

the

1. the
   • [1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     omnibus vero dictionibus praeponebat articulum tho aut the

     specifically/but [he/she] placed the article tho or the before every word]

While it is likely that Crimean Gothic retained grammatical gender, de Busbecq's letter does not mention which articles are used with which words, making it impossible to reconstruct their gender.

the c

1. Alternative spelling of te (“tea”)
   • 2016, Thorkild Hansen, Genklang: Rejser og portrætter 1959-89, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:

     Vi vågnede ved 6tiden og lavede dejlig the.

     We got up at about 6 AM and made lovely tea.

   • 2015, Lotte Heise, Tina Bryld, Selvfølgelig skal hun bo hos mig: om at bo med sin handicappede mor, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:

     Hun smiler over hele femøren, da duften af te breder sig: ”Uha, dejlig the.”

     She smiles broadly, as the scent of tea spreads: ”Oh, lovely tea.”

the

1. I (first person singular pronoun)

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

• IPA^(key): /tʰe/

the m (fem. theko)

1. you (thou)

• ethebee

• IPA^(key): /te/

the (plural thes)

1. tea

• IPA^(key): [hɛ]

the

1. Lenited form of te.

the

1. Misspelling of tè.

the

1. Alternative form of þe (“the”)
   • 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 1-2.

     Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
     The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

the

1. Alternative form of þe (“thee”)

the

1. Alternative form of þei (“they”)

the

1. Alternative form of theen

the

1. ear

• ye (incorporated noun)

• Mark Abley (2003) Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages (in Murrinh-Patha)

• de

the (indeclinable, relative)

1. that, who, which

1. Braune, Wilhelm. Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, zusammengestellt und mit Glossar versehen

From Proto-Germanic *sa. The original s- was replaced by th- by analogy with the other forms, but still preserved in the variant sē.

thē

1. that, that one

   them uuīha uuīsa lēstean: To obey that holy wise.

• Middle Low German: de
  • Low German: de

From Proto-Germanic *þa, from Proto-Indo-European *tó, *te-.

the (indeclinable, relative)

1. that, who, which

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /tʰe/

the (تھےۡ)

1. to
2. for
3. at

• Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “the”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[3], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

• tha (common in Ulster Scots literature)

From Old English se.

• IPA^(key): [ðə]
• (Shetland) IPA^(key): [də] (often written da)
• (chiefly North Northern Scots, northern East Central Scots) IPA^(key): [i], [ə] (often written ee or 'e)
• (some Glasgow speakers) IPA^(key): [rə] (often written ra)

the

1. the (definite article)

• The definite article is used a lot more frequently idiomatically in Scots than in English.

• “the”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

Borrowed from English the, which sounds similar to Serbo-Croatian da.

the (no known Cyrillic variant)

1. (Internet slang) Alternative spelling of da

   neki kreten the ih drka emotivno

   some jerk to fuck with them emotionally

   the ovo okačim na fb wall, garant ne bih opstala od borKINJa za ženska prava

   if I posted this on my FB wall, I surely wouldn't survive the women rights fighters

Cognates include Dogrib whe.

• IPA^(key): [θɛ̀(ʔ)]
• Hyphenation: the

the (stem -dhe-)

1. belt

• Keren Rice (1989) A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 38

the n

1. Alternative spelling of te (tea)

• -het, het

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tʰɛ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [tʰɛ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [tʰɛ˧˧]

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 紗 (SV: sa).

the • (絁, 𦂛, 施, 𫄋)

1. a kind of silk gauze, often used to make ao dai

the • (施)

1. having a strong and fragrant smell or flavor, usually overlaps with what described as "minty" or "citrusy" in English

the

1. Aspirate mutation of te.

the

1. Alternative form of a (“the”)
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 12, page 88:

     Th' ball want a cowlee, the gazb maate all rize;

     The ball o'er shot the goal, the dust rose all about;

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 88