EE

¹

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

-ee

²

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

abbreviation for

1. errors excepted.

E.E.

⁴

abbreviation for

1. Early English.
2. electrical engineer.
3. electrical engineering.

EE

¹

abbreviation for

1. Early English
2. electrical engineer(ing)
3. (in New Zealand) ewe equivalent

-ee

²

suffix forming nouns

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

   lessee

   grantee

2. indicating a person in a specified state or condition

   absentee

   employee

3. indicating a diminutive form of something

   bootee

ee

³

/ iː /

noun

1. See eye
   a Scot word for eye 1

ee

⁴

the internet domain name for

1. Estonia

e.e.

⁵

abbreviation for

1. errors excepted

Word History and Origins

Origin of EE¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of EE¹

via Old French -e, -ee, past participial endings, from Latin -ātus, -āta -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Again, it was the EE [Executive Elders] who made those decisions.

From The Daily Beast

Her unique phrasing renders the word “Friday” as “fry-ee-day.”

From The Daily Beast

The tea partiers are lining up like rubes at the “Direct from Gay Par-ee!”

From The Daily Beast

"God bless 'ee, Missy," cried the old man in the shrill cracked voice of age, as he pressed up to the carriage window.

From Project Gutenberg

Papa, can't I go to the zoologerical rooms to see the camomile fight the rhy-no-sir-ee-hoss?

From Project Gutenberg

I seed two er th'ee men prowlin' roun' in de bushes ez I come 'long.

From Project Gutenberg

And again: 'I tell 'ee the King and Queen could not bear the presence of he.

From Project Gutenberg

Wk-mi-ser, Corn; a warrior of distinction, of the Ne-caw-ee-gee band.

From Project Gutenberg

Words That Use -ee

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.

Examples of -ee

A common word that uses the suffix -ee is absentee, “a person who is absent, especially from work or school.”

The word absent- here means “to take or keep (oneself) away.” The suffix -ee denotes the performer of an act. Absentee literally translates to “someone who takes or keeps oneself away.”

What are some words that use the combining form -ee?

• asylee
• devotee
• employee (using the equivalent form of -ee in French)
• parolee
• trainee
• tutee

What are some other forms that -ee may be commonly confused with?

• -ed
• -eer

Not every word that ends with the exact letters -ee, such as tree or bee, is necessarily using the suffix -ee to denote the performer of an act. Learn where the word bee comes from at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

Given the meaning of the suffix -ee, what does employee literally mean?