de
preposition
from; of (used in French, Spanish, and Portuguese personal names, originally to indicate place of origin).
Jump To:
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de
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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 American
[duh, duh, de, di]
/ də, də, dɛ, dɪ /
preposition
DE
2
American
de'
3
American
[duh, de]
/ də, dɛ /
preposition
de-
4
American
D.E.
5
American
abbreviation
-
Doctor of Engineering.
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driver education.
de-
1
British
prefix
-
removal of or from something specified
deforest
dethrone
-
reversal of something
decode
decompose
desegregate
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departure from
decamp
DE
2
British
abbreviation
-
(formerly in Britain) Department of Employment
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Delaware
de
3
British
/ də /
de
4
British
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.
See Examples For:
My favorite sentiment indicator, the Investors Intelligence Bull/Bear ratio, recently came in at 3.88 on a de facto scale of around 0.5 to 5.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
"I was really weak. I couldn't really feel my legs any more," says Anaïs de Vos.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Pearce, the attorney who argued before the 9th Circuit, noted that judges in other parts of the country have nixed Trump administration maneuvers to keep de facto U.S. attorneys in power without Senate confirmation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
The brothers produced the 1950s-style spy spoof "OSS 117" series and cult comedy "Brice de Nice", as well as a thriller based on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power, "Conquest".
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Even after Lépine and Bertillon failed—even after their failure was exposed—a lot of people decided to repeat their mistakes: they decided to believe in Eduardo de Valfierno.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Deere DE 0.43%increase; green up pointing triangle posted higher fiscal second-quarter sales as growth in the company’s construction equipment business helped to offset weakness in its production agriculture segment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Nebraska farmer Guy Mills figures he has spent more than half a million dollars over the past eight years on repairs to his Deere DE 1.07%increase; green up pointing triangle tractors and harvesters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
The DE said it continues to support children through free school meals to low-income families and will continue to work with other government departments and agencies to look at ways to tackle holiday hunger.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2026
The winners include McDonald’s, Exxon Mobil XOM -2.44%decrease; red down pointing triangle and tractor maker Deere DE 0.07%increase; green up pointing triangle .
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
DE LAND, a town and the county-seat of Volusia county, Florida, U.S.A.,
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 10 "David, St" to "Demidov" by Various
He was a favorite of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and his paintings have a superficial resemblance both to those of his teacher, Botticelli, and those of his father, Fra Filippo Lippi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
Florence's Uffizi Gallery said a tourist fell backwards while trying to "make a meme in front" of a portrait of Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, by Anton Domenico Gabbiani.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2025
Catherine de’ Medici, the 16th century ruler of France, did the unthinkable for her time: She rose to power in a man’s world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2022
How do you feel knowing that your novels may play a significant part in the way that figures like Hamnet Shakespeare and Lucrezia de’ Medici are understood by future generations?
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
He began to campaign for such a return, and published the instruction manual for his compass in a limited edition book, dedicated to Prince Cosimo de’ Medici, in 1606.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Mr. Tisci said he was de- and reconstructing the pillars of the house: trenches, car coats and checks.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
While still used in food, now it is mainly mined as a chemical agent, water softener, or a de- icer for roads.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
“It was a very, very de- pressing time.”
From MSNBC ● Mar. 21, 2015
“You may want to be buying the stories when they are de- rated and the hopes and dreams have turned to disappointment,” she said.
From BusinessWeek ● Feb. 3, 2011
Less de- fensibly, the nuns distrusted intellectual challenges to authority.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
Shares fell at the start of the month after the D.E.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
Shaw believes CoStar’s shares have underperformed because of its “high-risk, money-losing” investment in Homes.com, a consumer-facing platform that aggregates home listings, according to a letter D.E.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
Other top performers last year include Citadel, D.E.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2024
The digital payments company agreed to shareholder D.E.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 20, 2023
It is impossible to describe here the details of these elaborate experiments; the reader must be referred to Hertz’s own papers, or the English translation of them by Prof. D.E.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 2 "Ehud" to "Electroscope" by Various
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.
