the

 
Pronunciation: /before a consonant ðə; before a vowel , ðɪ; stressed , ðiː/

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

Origin:

Old English se, sēo, thæt, ultimately superseded by forms from Northumbrian and North Mercian thē, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch de, dat, and German der, die, das