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• des
  des

  preposition

  used in French names as a contraction of de and the article les: François des Adrets.
• DES
  DES

  abbreviation

  diethylstilbestrol.
• -des
  -des

  a plural suffix appearing in loanwords from Greek.

des

¹ American  

[day] / deɪ /

preposition

1. used in French names as a contraction of de and the article les: François des Adrets.

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DES ² American  

abbreviation

1. diethylstilbestrol.

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-des ³ American  

1. a plural suffix appearing in loanwords from Greek.

   proboscides.

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DES British  

abbreviation

1. Department of Education and Science

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DES Scientific  

/ dē′ē-ĕs′ /

1. Short for diethylstilbestrol. A synthetic nonsteroidal substance having estrogenic properties and prescribed between 1938 and 1971 to pregnant women with a history of miscarriage and other problems of pregnancy. It is no longer used due to the incidence of certain vaginal cancers and other disorders in the daughters of women so treated.

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Etymology

Origin of -des

< Greek, nominative plural of d- stem nouns

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

des DES

Getting to work on time wasn’t a problem for the Louvre’s president-director, Christophe Leribault, who, unlike his predecessor Laurence des Cars, actually lives in an apartment inside the museum.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

The charity said fundraising highlights included the Tour des Pyrénées, which saw 52 cyclists complete a coast-to-coast challenge and raise a "record-breaking" £236,000 for the charity.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026

"It's gigantic. No human being could process such a quantity" of data, said project leader Daniel Stoekl Ben Ezra, of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Agathe Le Mestric, a 23 year-old notary, simply wanted to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo when she turned up on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

He hurries down through the lobby and paces the rue des Forgeurs, then the rue de Dinan.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Brett Bezio, a spokesperson for DES, said the agency is focusing on reducing the state’s error rate to ensure “the program remains a stable resource for vulnerable Arizonans.”

From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2026

Last summer, DES also laid off about 500 employees in response to the elimination of federal grants and in anticipation of additional federal cuts.

From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2026

DES MOINES, Iowa — For Democrats in Iowa, this year’s Super Tuesday is a break from five decades of tradition in how the state gets its say in helping determine the presidential nominee.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 5, 2024

For the 2018 analysis, DES scientists combined data about the spectrum of each supernova to determine their redshifts and to classify them as type Ia or not.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 8, 2024

He had accessed the anonymous FTP server at the University of Helsinki to copy information about DES.

From Underground by Suelette Dreyfus

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