de
preposition
from; of (used in French, Spanish, and Portuguese personal names, originally to indicate place of origin).
Jump To:
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de
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DE
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de'
de'prepositiondei (used in Italian names as an elided form ofdei ).
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de-
de-a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin (decide ); also used to indicate privation, removal, and separation (dehumidify ), negation (demerit; derange ), descent (degrade; deduce ), reversal (detract ), intensity (decompound ).
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D.E.
D.E.abbreviationDoctor of Engineering.
de
1 American
[duh, duh, de, di]
/ də, də, dɛ, dɪ /
preposition
DE
2
American
de'
3
American
[duh, de]
/ də, dɛ /
preposition
de-
4
American
D.E.
5
American
abbreviation
-
Doctor of Engineering.
-
driver education.
de-
1
British
prefix
-
removal of or from something specified
deforest
dethrone
-
reversal of something
decode
decompose
desegregate
-
departure from
decamp
DE
2
British
abbreviation
-
(formerly in Britain) Department of Employment
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Delaware
de
3
British
/ də /
de
4
British
abbreviation
Etymology
Origin of de1
From French, Portuguese, Spanish, from Latin dē
Origin of de-4
Middle English < Latin dē-, prefixal use of dē (preposition) from, away from, of, out of; in some words, < French < Latin dē- or dis- dis- 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“When you see an 87-year-old being evicted from her home 99.9% of people react negatively, everyone shows solidarity. But this case is more complicated,” said de la Cruz.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Brostrom added that Spanish-American Luis de Lecea was likely to share the prize with the duo.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Director Brian de Palma's 1976 movie version is a horror classic, with some of its most famous scenes and imagery widely considered iconic within the genre.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
In the 1770s, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza led an expedition of settlers into what would later become California, bringing donkeys and horses with him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
La bande de Picasso—the Picasso gang—had checked almost every box.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Deere DE -0.52%decrease; down pointing triangle is making a bet that artificial intelligence can help farmers make better decisions—and eventually revive sliding sales of farm equipment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Deere DE 0.43%increase; green up pointing triangle posted higher fiscal second-quarter sales as growth in the company’s construction equipment business helped to offset weakness in its production agriculture segment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Each school in Northern Ireland is required by the DE to teach RSE.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
Deere DE -1.26%decrease; red down pointing triangle raised its fiscal-year outlook and said demand in the construction and small agriculture markets was recovering.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Thus in the figure the stress in RV is represented by the four equal and parallel lines HI, FG, DE and AB.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 "Destructors" to "Diameter" by Various
He was a favorite of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and his paintings have a superficial resemblance both to those of his teacher, Botticelli, and those of his father, Fra Filippo Lippi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
Florence's Uffizi Gallery said a tourist fell backwards while trying to "make a meme in front" of a portrait of Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, by Anton Domenico Gabbiani.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2025
Catherine de’ Medici, the 16th century ruler of France, did the unthinkable for her time: She rose to power in a man’s world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2022
Lucrezia was the fifth child of Cosimo de’ Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany, and his wife, Eleanor de’ Toledo.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
There is no direct evidence regarding de’ Barbari’s date of birth, but he was described as old and ill in 1512; his earliest securely dated work is 1500.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Mr. Tisci said he was de- and reconstructing the pillars of the house: trenches, car coats and checks.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
While still used in food, now it is mainly mined as a chemical agent, water softener, or a de- icer for roads.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
“It was a very, very de- pressing time.”
From MSNBC ● Mar. 21, 2015
As a 34-year-old, Leung became the head of the committee in 1988, responsible for drafting the Basic Law, the city’s de- facto constitution adopted after the former British colony was returned to China.
From BusinessWeek ● Nov. 25, 2011
Less de- fensibly, the nuns distrusted intellectual challenges to authority.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
Shares fell at the start of the month after the D.E.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
The group’s members include a managing director of investment firm D.E.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025
In activist investor news: Air Products named two new directors as it faces pressure from Mantle Ridge and D.E.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2024
That announcement came almost a year after activist investor D.E.
From Reuters ● Jun. 20, 2023
It is impossible to describe here the details of these elaborate experiments; the reader must be referred to Hertz’s own papers, or the English translation of them by Prof. D.E.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 2 "Ehud" to "Electroscope" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
