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the

Pronunciation: /ðə/

The English word “the” has 18 meanings listed here.

article

  1. ...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter.
  2. Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time.
  3. Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar.
  4. Used before a body part, a family member, a pet (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun.
  5. Precedes a familiar nickname or other term of address.
  6. 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.
  7. When stressed, indicates that it describes something which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention.
  8. When stressed, used before the name of a famous person, to distinguish said person from a hypothetical lesser-known person with the same name.
  9. Used before a noun phrase beginning with superlative or comparative adjective or an ordinal number, indicating that the noun refers to a single item.
  10. Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class.
  11. Used with the plural of a surname to indicate the entire family.
  12. Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive.
  13. Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective.
  14. Used before a demonym ending in -ish or -ese to refer to people of a given country collectively.

adverb

  1. With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives.
  2. With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none.
  3. Beyond all others.

preposition

  1. For each; per.

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pronoun), a late variant of sē, the s- (which occurred in the masculine and feminine nominative singular only) having been replaced by the þ- from the oblique stem. replaced words, cognates Originally neutral nominative, in Middle English it superseded all previous Old English nominative forms (sē m, sēo f, þæt n, þā pl);…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.