Jump To:

• EE
  EE

  a proportional shoe width size narrower than EEE and wider than E.
• -ee
  -ee

  a suffix forming from transitive verbs nouns which denote a person who is the object or beneficiary of the act specified by the verb (addressee; employee; grantee ); recent formations now also mark the performer of an act, with the base being an intransitive verb (escapee; returnee; standee ) or, less frequently, a transitive verb (attendee ) or another part of speech (absentee; refugee ).
• e.e.
  e.e.

  abbreviation

  errors excepted.
• E.E.
  E.E.

  abbreviation

  Early English.
• ee
  ee

  noun

  a Scot word for eye 1

EE

¹ American  

1. a proportional shoe width size narrower than EEE and wider than E.

---

-ee ² American  

1. a suffix forming from transitive verbs nouns which denote a person who is the object or beneficiary of the act specified by the verb (addressee; employee; grantee ); recent formations now also mark the performer of an act, with the base being an intransitive verb (escapee; returnee; standee ) or, less frequently, a transitive verb (attendee ) or another part of speech (absentee; refugee ).

---

e.e. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. errors excepted.

---

E.E. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. Early English.

2. electrical engineer.

3. electrical engineering.

---

EE ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. Early English

2. electrical engineer(ing)

3. (in New Zealand) ewe equivalent

---

-ee ² British  

suffix

1. indicating a person who is the recipient of an action (as opposed, esp in legal terminology, to the agent, indicated by -or or -er )

   assignee

   grantee

   lessee

2. indicating a person in a specified state or condition

   absentee

   employee

3. indicating a diminutive form of something

   bootee

---

ee ³ British  

/ iː /

noun

1. a Scot word for eye 1

---

ee ⁴ British  

abbreviation

1. Estonia

---

e.e. ⁵ British  

abbreviation

1. errors excepted

---

Usage

What does -ard mean? The suffix -ee is used to denote nouns related to the object or beneficiary of an act or the performer of an act. It is often used in everyday and technical terms. The form -ee comes from the French suffixes -é (masculine) and ée (feminine), which are used to designate past participles, much like how -ed is used in English. The suffixes -é and ée come from Latin -ātus (masculine) and -āta (feminine), of the same meaning.

Etymology

Origin of -ee

< French -é, (masculine), -ée (feminine), past participle endings < Latin -ātus, -āta -ate ¹

Example Sentences

I think e.e. cummings said you can understand the poem without knowing what it means.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 28, 2025

In publishing, new editions of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet and Robert Frost’s New Hampshire are already on the way, and work from Agatha Christie, Joseph Conrad, e.e. cummings, and P.G.

From Slate • Dec. 30, 2018

“Blue-Eyed Boy,” whose titles derived from an e.e. cummings poem, was viewed by critics as a self-lacerating catharsis.

From Washington Post • Sep. 7, 2016

On the other end of the spectrum, e.e. cummings’ “Next to of course god america i” is a parody of typical campaign rhetoric, mashing together various patriotic cliches.

From Time • Apr. 7, 2015

Other examples—such as the work of e.e. cummings—is astonishing in its mastery.

From Salon • Jul. 3, 2012