the male person or animal being discussed or last mentioned; that male.
anyone (without reference to gender); that person.
He who hesitates is lost.
the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
any of the sounds represented by this letter.
high explosive. Also HE
His Eminence.
His Excellency; Her Excellency.
refers to a male person or animal
he looks interesting
he's a fine stallion
refers to an indefinite antecedent such as one, whoever, or anybody
everybody can do as he likes in this country
refers to a person or animal of unknown or unspecified sex
a member of the party may vote as he sees fit
high explosive
His Eminence
His ( or Her) Excellency
Traditionally, the masculine singular pronouns he, his, and him have been used generically to refer to indefinite pronouns like anyone, everyone, and someone ( Everyone who agrees should raise his right hand ) and to singular nouns that can be applied to either gender ( painter, parent, person, teacher, writer, etc.): Every writer knows that his first book is not likely to be a bestseller. This generic use is often criticized as sexist, although many speakers and writers continue the practice. Those who object to the generic use of he have developed various ways of avoiding it. One is to use he/she or she/he (or he or she or she or he ) or the appropriate case forms of these pairs: Everyone who agrees should raise his or her (or her or his or his/her or her/his ) right hand. Forms blending the feminine and masculine pronouns, as s/he, have not been widely adopted, probably because of confusion over how to say them. Another solution is to change the antecedent pronoun or noun from singular to plural so that the plural pronouns they, their, and them can be used: All who agree should raise their right hands. All writers know that their first books are not likely to be bestsellers. See also they .
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English hē; cognate with Dutch hij, Old Saxon hē, Old High German her; cf. her , here ( def. ), it 1
From Hebrew hē; cognate with Arabic hāʾ hā ( def. )
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For example, a stock’s forward P/E valuation might be 15 when he purchases it and expand to 35 over the next year and a half.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
In the end he was cleared of the most serious charges, leaving him free to write this account of the nation’s financial calamity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Given he earned 14 victories over the previous two seasons, it is a drought few could have conceived when he triumphed at the American Express Open on 27 January 2026.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“They have also indicated an appetite to get into mechanical,” another phase of data-center construction, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
She learns that he is interned at a camp in Los Baños, nestled between Mount Makiling and Laguna de Bay.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
He also said that Mama’s had been “getting better” at distribution while broadening its product lineup.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
He must distance himself from his former ally’s personal scandals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
He also helped investigate ways to improve the production of materials in space for use in high performance computers and electronics.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
He became an English amateur champion and represented England six times, but was unable to pursue Olympic qualification or accept professional contracts because he did not have permission to work or travel.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
He was a staunch proponent of academic freedom and highly critical of Nazi Germany and Japanese militarism.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The study was conducted by Xuhang Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at IGG working under the supervision of Professor HE Huaiyu.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
Either way, they need to figure out what is going on, and HE needs to tell Mom they need to make other plans.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 9, 2023
"These trends suggest that little progress has been made to increase access to HE for Protestant students, and this should remain a priority in a future approach," the report said.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2022
Check out my review of the Wooting Two HE for an overview of the kinds of problems you can encounter with an analog keyboard.
From The Verge ● Mar. 7, 2022
SO HE WAS, three days later, thinner, paler, and not a whit daunted by his two months in a concrete cell.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
It is no chore to admire the vast number of fine Lasker games, such as his win over English star H.E.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 26, 2023
Kate Larson is also a fan of YA fiction, and she’s especially excited to sell customers “Godly Heathens,” a novel by local author H.E.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
Based on the novel “The Darling Buds of May” by H.E.
From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2021
H.E. faithfully prayed the Rosary for those suffering from the virus.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 16, 2021
I had closed this letter with the photograph when I received fresh news, to the effect that the messengers we sent to H.E.
From The Life of Gordon, Volume II by Boulger, Demetrius Charles
“But clearly there’s problems—problems that are still here from 4 years ago. Simply put, hes not it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
She – there are hes, but the disciples I’ve spotted in the wild are predominantly female – is deaf to criticism, immune to self-doubt, ready to spring to action.
From The Guardian ● May 16, 2018
He has been givin the keys to the car, since hes been drafted.
From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2014
Maybe hes a cipher in the sense that hes a symbol.
From Salon ● Mar. 9, 2014
I dint think pepul would laff at Prof Nemur because hes a sientist in a collidge but Bert said no sientist is a grate man to his colleegs and his gradulate studints.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
But he also focuses on companies whose “management teams are good at exceeding the expectations that they set.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
When the researchers compared participants' descriptions of waking life with their dream reports, they found that the brain did not appear to reproduce daily experiences exactly as they happened.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
“It turns out they persist as losers,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Because dreams are highly personal and often difficult to describe, they have traditionally been challenging to investigate on a large scale.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
She has scars from her longtime battle with skin lesions, but the new sores don’t appear as fast or as furiously as they had in the past.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
He later had a painful rupture with the company’s chief executive, Sam Altman—voting to fire him before himself leaving the company months after Altman’s reinstatement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
At his best, there is an inevitability to Scheffler winning - but over the course of any tournament, a dip in one element can cost him.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“I really don’t. We expect him to be pitching. ... So I don’t think that our approach to the deadline has changed given these last three weeks with Shohei.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
In the end he was cleared of the most serious charges, leaving him free to write this account of the nation’s financial calamity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Now Phineas takes a neighborly seat on the porch and tells his landlord what happened to him.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
“We have robust processes in place for finding big winners and letting them run. We are also good at cutting when we see early signs of fatigue.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Cracker Barrel said it was also on track to meet or exceed its full-year outlook, and said it sold 26 of its company-owned locations and would lease them back.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
After dark, the larvae rise toward the surface to feed, although they must first pass through large numbers of fish waiting to eat them.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
"I could see people walking and kids outside playing, but I wasn't allowed to play with them."
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Hundreds of prisoners—most of them foreign civilians, like Gertie—are held here.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
But Nelson expects that if he and his colleagues select a stock early enough in the company’s growth cycle, the P/E multiple will increase.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Valentine Nesbit “tabulated the expenses” of debtors who appeared in his court in the 1930s, “subtracted them from the debtor’s wages,” and paid the rest to creditors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Williams and his crewmates spent 241 days in space after launching to the International Space Station on Nov. 27, 2025.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
Antonelli is this year proving his billing as a generational talent in dominating the F1 world championship in only his second season.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
What if Ted had threadbare clothes and had to approach people on the street with his hand outstretched?
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
On the financial side, 28% of the entire group increased their emergency funds, and 33% shifted to more conservative investments.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Shares in Cracker Barrel plunged amid the controversy, losing more than half their value, though the stock started to recover.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
When the researchers examined the larvae, they discovered that the insects had adapted part of their respiratory system into two pairs of small air sacs.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
A statistical analysis showed that having an adviser did not affect investors’ assessments of their investment strategies or their financial futures.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
They are ready to serve their country, certainly.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
From “Sailor Beware” to “The Stooge,” “Living It Up” and “Artists and Models,” theirs was a comedy partnership that came to symbolize America.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
"I believe only civil society can influence these processes. While we are here defending rights, people went out and defended theirs," she said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
"Machines cannot read our tacit knowledge and we cannot read theirs," he writes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
While many communities decided to light their bonfires on Saturday, some will light theirs on Sunday - on the eve of the parades.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Our understanding of the word ‘modern’, when talking about science, thus still corresponds to theirs, and their use of the term ‘the modern’ is their way of acknowledging what we call the Scientific Revolution.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
