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the

article
/ðə/

Etymology

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pronoun), a late variant of sē, the s- (which occurred in the masculine and feminine nominative singular only) having been replaced by the þ- from the oblique stem. replaced words, cognates Originally neutral nominative, in Middle English it superseded all previous Old English nominative forms (sē m, sēo f, þæt n, þā pl); sē is from Proto-West Germanic *siz, from Proto-Germanic *sa, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *só. Cognate with Saterland Frisian die (“the”), West Frisian de (“the”), Dutch de (“the”), German Low German de (“the”), German der (“the”), Danish de (“the”), Swedish de (“the”), Icelandic sá (“that”) within Germanic and with Sanskrit स (sá, “the, that”), Ancient Greek ὁ (ho, “the”), Tocharian B se (“this”) among other Indo-European languages.

  1. inherited from *só✻
  2. inherited from *sa✻
  3. inherited from *siz✻
  4. inherited from þē
  5. inherited from þe

Definitions

  1. Used before a noun phrase, including a simple noun

    • 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.

  2. Used with an adjective

    • That apple pie was the best.

  3. With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or…

    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.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative.…

      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.

    2. Beyond all others.

      • We went the furthest under her leadership.
      • They trusted him the most.

    3. For each

      For each; per.

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

    4. Obsolete form of thee.

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

The neighborhood

Derived

all the time, Jack the Ripper, the heck, the hell, the man, the one, th'other, I'm not the one, Proverbs using the, Idioms using the, nevertheless, nonetheless

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for the. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA