de

¹ American  

[duh, duh, de, di] / də, də, dɛ, dɪ /

preposition

1. from; of (used in French, Spanish, and Portuguese personal names, originally to indicate place of origin).

   Comte de Rochambeau; Don Ricardo de Aragón.

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DE ² American  

abbreviation

1. Delaware (approved especially for use with zip code).

2. destroyer escort.

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de' ³ American  

[duh, de] / də, dɛ /

preposition

1. dei (used in Italian names as an elided form ofdei ).

   de' Medici.

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de- ⁴ American  

1. 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. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. Doctor of Engineering.

2. driver education.

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de- ¹ British  

prefix

1. removal of or from something specified

   deforest

   dethrone

2. reversal of something

   decode

   decompose

   desegregate

3. departure from

   decamp

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DE ² British  

abbreviation

1. (formerly in Britain) Department of Employment

2. Delaware

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de ³ British  

/ də /

1. of; from: occurring as part of some personal names and originally indicating place of origin

   Simon de Montfort

   D'Arcy

   de la Mare

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de ⁴ British  

abbreviation

1. Germany

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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

Sri Lanka recalled Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva to the T20 squad Tuesday for a three-match home series against Pakistan ahead of the World Cup.

From Barron's

All-rounder De Silva has not played a T20 since June 2024 against the Netherlands.

From Barron's

Formally, the state owns the oil and exercises ownership through Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.

From Barron's

Formally, the state owns the oil and exercises ownership through Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.

From Barron's

Cuba’s intelligence and security team in Venezuela was led by senior military-intelligence veterans, including Asdrúbal de la Vega, the Cuban officer closest to Maduro who became his shadow and slept in a room next to the deposed strongman, said Carlos Cabrera Pérez, a Cuban journalist based in Spain who writes about Cuba’s security apparatus.

From The Wall Street Journal