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de
deprepositionfrom; of (used in French, Spanish, and Portuguese personal names, originally to indicate place of origin).
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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 Americanpreposition
preposition
abbreviation
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Doctor of Engineering.
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driver education.
prefix
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removal of or from something specified
deforest
dethrone
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reversal of something
decode
decompose
desegregate
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departure from
decamp
abbreviation
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(formerly in Britain) Department of Employment
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Delaware
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.
On Friday, an anonymous collector who goes by Cozomo de’ Medici announced on X that he’d bought two of the dogs, Picasso and Warhol, and former Sotheby’s chief executive Tad Smith bought an “Elon.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025
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
How do you feel knowing that your novels may play a significant part in the way that figures like Hamnet Shakespeare and Lucrezia de’ Medici are understood by future generations?
From Seattle Times • Sep. 30, 2022
He began to campaign for such a return, and published the instruction manual for his compass in a limited edition book, dedicated to Prince Cosimo de’ Medici, in 1606.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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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.