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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.


DE 2 American  

abbreviation

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

  2. destroyer escort.


de' 3 American  
[duh, de] / də, dɛ /

preposition

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

    de' Medici.


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 ).


D.E. 5 American  

abbreviation

  1. Doctor of Engineering.

  2. driver education.


de- 1 British  

prefix

  1. removal of or from something specified

    deforest

    dethrone

  2. reversal of something

    decode

    decompose

    desegregate

  3. departure from

    decamp

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

DE 2 British  

abbreviation

  1. (formerly in Britain) Department of Employment

  2. Delaware

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

de 4 British  

abbreviation

  1. Germany

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of de1

From French, Portuguese, Spanish, from Latin

Origin of de-4

Middle English < Latin dē-, prefixal use of (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.

The proposed window runs from 9 May to 9 June 2026 and includes time for set‑up, show days, de‑rig and "wet weather buffer days".

From BBC

Opener Abhishek Sharma has recorded three consecutive ducks, but De Kock did not read too much into it.

From Barron's

"He's the number one T20 batsman in the world at the moment, according to the rankings, so he must keep doing what he's doing," said de Kock of the 25-year-old Abhishek.

From Barron's

De Kock said there were no favourites in the T20 format.

From Barron's

"I think that's what's going to make for quite a good game tomorrow, because we've played against each other quite a bit over the last two months," said South Africa opener De Kock.

From Barron's