the
/ðə/ article, adverb, preposition
Forms da d' teh de t' th' ye yᵉ yͤ
- article ...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter.
- article Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time.
- article Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar.
- article Used before a body part, a family member, a pet (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun.
- article (colloquial) Precedes a familiar nickname or other term of address. “How's the Sal today?”
- article Used in many idiomatic expressions and proverbs to refer to common objects, roles, or situations connected with something definite, in the manner of an analogy.
- article When stressed, indicates that it describes something which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention.
- article When stressed, used before the name of a famous person, to distinguish said person from a hypothetical lesser-known person with the same name.
- adverb With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives. “The more I think about it, the weaker it looks.”
- adverb 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.”
- adverb (with a superlative adjective) Beyond all others. “We went the furthest under her leadership.”
- preposition For each; per. “valued at half a pound the bushel; paying seven dollars the year interest”
Synonyms
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pronoun), a late variant of sē, the s- (which occurred in the masculine and feminine nominative singular only) having been replaced by the þ- from the oblique stem.
Originally neutral nominative, in Middle English it superseded all previous Old English nominative forms (sē m, sēo f, þæt n, þā pl); sē is from Proto-West Germanic *siz, from Proto-Germanic *sa, ultimately from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.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- verb See Thee. [Obs.] Chaucer. Milton.
- A word placed before nouns to limit or individualize their meaning.
- adverb By that; by how much; by so much; on that account; --used before comparatives; as, the longer we continue in sin, the more difficult it is to reform. "Yet not the more cease I." Milton.
Etymology [AS. the, a later form for earlier nom. sing. masc. se, formed under the influence of the oblique cases. See That, pron.]
Etymology [AS. th\'c7, th\'df, instrumental case of se, seó, th\'91t, the definite article. See 2d The.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “the”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details