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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.
Poços de Caldas, a city built in the caldera of an extinct volcano, has become one of the centers of the rush.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said young people benefit from technology, but that children, parents, and carers struggle to find where the right balance, saying it is "the bane of our life".
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
The show, which justly received the Tony for best musical revival contained perhaps the season’s most seismic tour de force.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
Some of the regime’s bitterest enemies in Miami became its de facto financial supporters as they sent their grandparents money without which they couldn’t survive.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
They’re both in Samuel de Champlain, the other house.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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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.