he

Pronoun (1)

he (third-person singular, masculine, nominative case, oblique him, reflexive himself, possessive his)

1. (masculine, nominative, personal, singular, third-person) A person who identifies as male, or animal already known or implied.
   • That friend of your cousin's, he's on the phone.
   • […]purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout...1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen, Isaac...
2. (masculine, nominative, personal, proscribed, singular, sometimes) They; he or she (a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant).
   • The rulebook clearly states that "if any student is caught cheating, he will be expelled", and you were caught cheating, were you not, Anna?
   • First, to avoid the cumbrous ‘he or she’ and ‘his or hers’, and the ungrammatical ‘they’ when used in the singular, I have mostly stuck to saying ‘he’ or ‘his’. I hope that this will be understood in an unchauvinistic, gender-neutral way.[2010, Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, The Rule of Law, Penguin Books, →ISBN, Preface, page ix
3. (masculine, nominative, personal, proscribed, singular, sometimes) It; an animal whose gender is unknown.

   Synonyms:

   it

4. (masculine, nominative, singular, third-person) A genderless object regarded as masculine, such as certain stars or planets (e.g. Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter) or certain ships.
   • JUPITER is the largest of all the Planets, his Orbit lies between the Orbits of the Earth and Mars, and at the cast Distance of 426 Millions of Miles from the Sun, he goes round him in 11 Years, 314 Days and 12 Hours; […]1770, A Mathematical Miscellany in Four Parts, 3rd edition, page 125
   • He [= the ship Bismarck] was made to rule the waves across the seven seas […]2019, Sabaton, Bismarck

   Antonyms:

   she, it

Determiner

he

1. (African-American Vernacular) Synonym of his.

   Synonyms:

   his

Noun (1)

he (countable and uncountable, plural hes)

1. (uncountable) The game of tag, or it, in which the player attempting to catch the others is called "he".
2. The player who chases and attempts to catch the others in this game.
3. (informal) A male.
   • Is your cat a he or a she?

Noun (2)

IPA/heɪ/

he

1. The name of the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
   • The same number in the Hebrew mysteries and Cabalistical accounts was the character of Generation; declared by the Letter He, the fifth in their Alphabet.1658, Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 210
   • This Nehama claimed that in his own hand he recognized the consonant “he” of his Hebrew language, and in the letter “vav” his own male soul.1988, Milorad Pavić, translated by Christina Pribićević-Zorić, Dictionary of the Khazars, Vintage, published 1989, page 7
2. The name of the first letter of the Old South Arabian abjad.

Interjection

he

1. (reduplication, uncommon, usually) An expression of laughter.
   • (more common)
   • If e'er he went into excess, / 'Twas from a somewhat lively thirst; / But he who would his subjects bless, / Odd's fish!—must wet his whistle first; / And so from every cask they got, / Our king did to himself allot / At least a pot. / Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he! / That's the kind of king for...1897, Charles Dudley Warner, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Charles Henry Warner, Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle, Library of the World's Best Literature: A-Z, page 1791

   Synonyms:

   ha, hehe

Noun (3) capitalized: HE

HE (countable and uncountable, plural HEs)

1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of high explosive.
   • This here is sixty-six tons of straight-up, HE-spewing dee-vine intervention!2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: Metropolis(Legendary)
2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of higher education.
   • LSST said the allegations were untrue. It described its mission as challenging: "We are providing a valuable service to communities that are often overlooked or are underserved by the public HE sector, and in doing so we are making transformational change."2014 May 21, Andrew McGettigan, Shiv Malik, John Domokos, “Private sector and students profit at the college they call 'the ATM'”, in The Guardian
3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of health education.
4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of His Excellency / Her Excellency.
5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of His Eminence.
6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of home entertainment.
7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of human era (“current epoch”).
8. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of hydroelectricity.
9. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of home economics.
10. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of hydrogen embrittlement.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: HE

HE

1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Hesse: a state of Germany.

Adjective capitalized: HE

HE (not comparable)

1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of hydroelectric.

Phrase capitalized: HE

HE

1. (Internet, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of how embarrassing.

Pronoun (2) capitalized: He

He (third-person singular masculine pronoun, oblique Him, reflexive Himself, possessive His)

1. (honorific, masculine, pronoun, singular, third-person) Honorific alternative letter-case form of he, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
   • I love the Lord for He is Great and Holy.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: He

He (plural Hes)

1. A surname from Mandarin.
   • The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2023, Sinosphere

Proper noun (3) capitalized: He

He

1. A county of Ma'anshan, Anhui, China.