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   The

   /T͟Hē/

   

   determiner

   • 1. denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge. "what's the matter?"
   • ▪ used to refer to a person, place, or thing that is unique: "the Queen"
   • ▪ denoting a disease or affliction: informal, archaic "I've got the flu"
   • ▪ (with a unit of time) the present; the current: "dish of the day"
   • ▪ used instead of a possessive to refer to someone with whom the speaker or person addressed is associated: informal "I'm meeting the boss"
   • ▪ 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"
   • 2. used to point forward to a following qualifying or defining clause or phrase: "the fuss that he made of her"
   • ▪ (chiefly with rulers and family members with the same name) used after a name to qualify it: "George the Sixth"
   • 3. used to make a generalized reference to something rather than identifying a particular instance: "he taught himself to play the violin"
   • ▪ 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"
   • 4. enough 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"
   • 6. used 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"
   • ▪ used to emphasize the amount or degree to which something is affected: "commodities made all the more desirable by their rarity"

   Word Origin Old Englishse, sēo, thæt, ultimately superseded by forms from Northumbrian and North Mercian thē, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch de, dat, and German der, die, das.

   Scrabble Points: 6

   • T

     1

   • H

     4

   • E

     1

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