the

determiner

• 1denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge:what’s the matter? call the doctor the phone rangCompare with a¹.
• used to refer to a person, place, or thing that is unique:the Queen the Mona Lisa the Nile
• informal or archaic denoting a disease or affliction:I’ve got the flu
• (with a unit of time) the present; the current:dish of the day man of the moment
• informal used instead of a possessive to refer to someone with whom the speaker or person addressed is associated:I’m meeting the boss how’s the family?
• used with a surname to refer to a family or married couple:the Johnsons were not wealthy
• used before the surname of the chief of a Scottish or Irish clan:the O’Donoghue

• 2used to point forward to a following qualifying or defining clause or phrase:the fuss that he made of her the top of a bus I have done the best I could
• (chiefly with rulers and family members with the same name) used after a name to qualify it:George the Sixth Edward the Confessor Jack the Ripper

• 3used to make a generalized reference to something rather than identifying a particular instance:he taught himself to play the violin I worry about the future
• used with a singular noun to indicate that it represents a whole species or class:they placed the African elephant on their endangered list
• used with an adjective to refer to those people who are of the type described:the unemployed
• used with an adjective to refer to something of the class or quality described:they are trying to accomplish the impossible
• used with the name of a unit to state a rate:they can do 120 miles to the gallon 35p in the pound

• 4enough of (a particular thing):he hoped to publish monthly, if only he could find the money

• 5(pronounced stressing ‘the’) used to indicate that someone or something is the best known or most important of that name or type:he was the hot young piano prospect in jazz

• 6used adverbially with comparatives to indicate how one amount or degree of something varies in relation to another:the more she thought about it, the more devastating it became
• (usually all the ——) used to emphasize the amount or degree to which something is affected:commodities made all the more desirable by their rarity