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de

/ˈdɛ/noun, verb, article, interjection, preposition

de is spelled D-E: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, de means “The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of de is des.

How many letters and syllables are in de?

Letters2: D-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing170 times per million words; the 591st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is de?

De appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce de?

  • /ˈdɛ/

As a verb (“Alternative form of dee (“to do”)”): /diː/, /dɪ/, /dɪv/.

De has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-de-.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-de-2.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-de-3.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with de

Also written: dee.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of de

  • des plural
  • diz present, singular, he/she/it
  • dein participle, present
  • did past
  • dyun participle, past
  • dee

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does de mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д.

interjection

  1. 1

    A meaningless unstressed syllable used when singing a tune or indicating a rhythm.

    “Dum de dum, dum de dum”, he hummed as he sauntered down the road.

preposition

  1. 1

    Used in the titles of French nobility; of.

noun

as DE
  1. 1

    Initialism of desktop environment.

  2. 2

    Initialism of diatomaceous earth.

  3. 3

    USInitialism of destroyer escort, a type of warship of the destroyer subtype, also called a frigate.

  4. 4

    Initialism of differential equation.

  5. 5

    Initialism of delayed ejaculation.

noun

as dE
  1. 1

    dwarf elliptical galaxy

verb

  1. 1

    Alternative form of dee (“to do”).

article

  1. 1

    Pronunciation spelling of the.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

De in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanDGL, DGl, Dgl, Dgl. (initialism of differential equation), ent-, de- (reversal, undoing or removing)
Frenchdé- (reversal, undoing or removing)
Portuguesede-, dis-, des- (reversal, undoing or removing)
Spanishde-, des- (reversal, undoing or removing)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does de come from?

Borrowed from Russian дэ (dɛ).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after de