definite articlenoun [ C ]
uk/ˌdef.ɪ.nət ˈɑː.tɪ.kəl/us/ˌdef.ɪ.nət ˈɑːr.t̬ɪ.kəl/specializedB1 the grammatical name for the word "the" in English, or the words in other languages that have a similar use
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indefinite article
Examples
- In French, you must include either the definite article 'le' or 'la', or the indefinite article 'un' or 'une', before a noun.
- Remember to use the definite article before 'radio' in sentences like 'I was listening to the radio'.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: parts of speech
- abstract noun
- adjective
- adjunct
- adv
- article
- collective noun
- common noun
- conj
- conjunction
- connective
- determiner
- indefinite article
- interjection
- n
- noun phrase
- part of speech
- prep
- preposition
- pron
- proper noun
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Examples from literature
- Al is the Arabic definite article.
- The definite article the belongs to nouns in the singular or plural number.
- The is, therefore, called the definite article.
- The present participle with the definite article the before it, becomes a noun, and must have the preposition of after it.
- There is one definite article, la, invariable.