the

/ðə/

the article: ...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter. Also the early Modern form of thee.

Article

the

...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter.
- 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.
Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time.
- No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe.
- God save the Queen!
Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar.
- No one in the whole country had seen it before.
- I don't think I'll get to it until the morning.
Used before a body part, a family member, a pet (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun.
- A stone hit him on the head. (= “A stone hit him on his head.”)
- (informal) How's the wife? (= "How is your wife?")
(colloquial) Precedes a familiar nickname or other term of address.
- How's the Sal today?
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.
- square the circle; feel the pinch; beat around the bush; throw the baby out with the bathwater
When stressed, indicates that it describes something which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention.
- That is the hospital to go to for heart surgery.
- "Good Heavens, man! Why, he is the authority. If you want pure laboratory experiments those are the books."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
When stressed, used before the name of a famous person, to distinguish said person from a hypothetical lesser-known person with the same name.
- "My name," he said, "is Hercule Poirot." "Not," the Commissary stammered, "not the Hercule Poirot?"1928, Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train
- ‘[…] he introduced us to Gwenog Jones.’ ‘Gwenog Jones?’ said Ron, his eyes widening under his own goggles. ‘The Gwenog Jones? Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?’2005, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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.
Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class.
- Stern and God-fearing, the Afrikaner takes his religion seriously.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 536
- The downy woodpecker can be found in the same environments as the hairy woodpecker.
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.
Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive.
- That apple pie was the best.
Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective.
- 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.
Used before a demonym ending in -ish or -ese to refer to people of a given country collectively.
- the Irish are...; the Chinese are...; the French are...

Adverb

the (not comparable)

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.
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.
Beyond all others.
- We went the furthest under her leadership.
- They trusted him the most.

Preposition

the

For each; per.
- valued at half a pound the bushel; paying seven dollars the year interest
- 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.”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...

Also used as

the is also the early Modern form of thee.

the meaning in Sanskrit, Tagalog, Arabic and Malay

the in Sanskrit

article: स, सा sā, तद् tad
stressed, indicating that the object in question is the only one worthy of attention: स, सा sā, तद् tad
with an adjectival noun, as in “the hungry” to mean “hungry people”: स, सा sā, तद् tad

the in Tagalog

article: ang
used with the name of a member of a class to refer to all things in that class: ang

the in Malay

article: sang, itu, ini, si

More languagesFewer languages

the in Indonesian: si, sang, itu, al
the in Persian: را for definite direct object râ, این

Examples of the in a sentence

The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird.
the street that runs all the way through my hometown
Let's go to the park!
Take me to the airport/station/hospital/office/park/match/meeting/et cetera.
The more money donated, the more books purchased, and the more happy children.
It looks weaker and weaker, the more I think about it.

All 40 example sentences with the

Synonyms of the

Forms of the

alternative form	da
alternative form	d'
alternative form	teh
alternative form	de
alternative form	t'
alternative form	th'
alternative form	ye
alternative form	yᵉ
alternative form	yͤ
alternative form	ẏe
alternative form	ẏᵉ

Origin of the

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.

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.

Words formed from the

Phrases with the

184 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with the

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about the

What does the mean?: The means ...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter.
What is the in Sanskrit?: The in Sanskrit is स, सा (sā), तद् (tad). See The meaning in Sanskrit.
How do you use the in a sentence?: The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird.
What part of speech is the?: The can be an article, an adverb or a preposition.
How do you pronounce the?: The is pronounced /ðə/.

Words near the in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: the (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-The.wav, en-us-the-unstressed.ogg, en-ca-the.ogg.

Cite this entry: “the.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.