definite article
noun
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What are the definite and indefinite articles?
The most common of all adjectives are the two (or three) articles. An article always comes before the noun it describes and before any other adjectives that also describe the noun. Articles are used to show whether or not the noun refers to a specific person or thing.
The indefinite article is a; it identifies a single, but not specific, person or thing. An is used instead of a whenever the word following it begins with a vowel sound.
Are you going to buy a house?
The smile is a universal sign of pleasure.
It's an honor to have been invited.
I've got an uncle in Miami.
The definite article is the; it is used to refer to identified or specified people or things, both singular and plural.
Will you be painting the house this summer?
He's the uncle I was telling you about.
Please put the dishes away.
Examples of definite article in a Sentence
Richard Edwards, Space.com, 30 Sep. 2025
Not even the poor old definite article was safe from his scalpel.
—Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
Now, Universal is reviving the franchise once again with Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man, a take so tight and lean that the title loses its definite article.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2025
And Body has a soft ‘o.’ Add a definite article between them and his birth name could be a cool stage name in professional wrestling.
—Sara Miller Llana, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 July 2024
But this drive doesn’t need a nickname or definite article.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 21 Jan. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Definite article.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/definite%20article. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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