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the¹—definite article

1. (used, especially before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an): the book you gave me; Come into the house.
2. (used to mark a proper noun, natural phenomenon, ship, building, time, point of the compass, branch of endeavor, or field of study as something well-known or unique): the sun; the Alps; the Queen Elizabeth; the past; the West.
3. (used with or as part of a title): the Duke of Wellington; the Reverend John Smith.
4. (used to mark a noun as indicating the best-known, most approved, most important, most satisfying, etc.): the skiing center of the U.S.; If you're going to work hard, now is the time.
5. (used to mark a noun as being used generically): The dog is a quadruped.
6. (used in place of a possessive pronoun, to note a part of the body or a personal belonging): He won't be able to play football until the leg mends.
7. (used before adjectives that are used substantively, to note an individual, a class or number of individuals, or an abstract idea): to visit the sick; from the sublime to the ridiculous.
8. (used before a modifying adjective to specify or limit its modifying effect): He took the wrong road and drove miles out of his way.
9. (used to indicate one particular decade of a lifetime or of a century): the sixties; the Gay Nineties.
10. (one of many of a class or type, as of a manufactured item, as opposed to an individual one): Did you listen to the radio last night?
11. enough: He saved until he had the money for a new car. She didn't have the courage to leave.
12. (used distributively, to note any one separately) for, to, or in each; a or an: at one dollar the pound.

Origin: before 900; Middle English, Old English, uninflected stem of the demonstrative pronoun. See that

—Pronunciation_note
As shown above, the pronunciation of the definite article the changes, primarily depending on whether the following sound is a consonant or a vowel. Before a consonant sound the pronunciation is [th uh] /ðə/: the book, the mountain [th uh-book, th uh-moun-tn] /ðə bɒɒk, ðəˈmaʊn tn/. Before a vowel sound it is usually [th ee] /ði/, sometimes [th i] /ðɪ/: the apple, the end [th ee or th i-ap-uh l, th ee or th i-end] /ði or ðɪˈæp əl, ði or ðɪ ɛnd/. As an emphatic form (“I didn't say a book—I said the book.”) or a citation form (“The word the is a definite article.”), the usual pronunciation is [th ee] /ði/, although in both of these uses of the stressed form, [th ee] /ði/ is often replaced by [th uh] /ðʌ/, especially among younger speakers.