Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


He

He

(hē)
,
p
ron.
[
nom.
He
;
p
oss.
His
(hĭz)
;
obj.
Him
(hĭm)
;
pl.
nom.
They
(thā)
;
p
oss.
Their
or
Theirs
(thârz or thārz)
;
obj.
Them
(thĕm)
.]
[AS.
hē
, masc.,
heó
, fem.,
hit
, neut.; pl.
hī
, or
hie
,
hig
; akin to OFries.
hi
, D.
hij
, OS.
he
,
hi
, G.
heute
to-day, Goth.
himma
, dat. masc., this,
hina
, accus. masc., and
hita
, accus. neut., and prob. to L.
his
this. √183. Cf.
It
.]
1.
The man or male being (or object personified to which the masculine gender is assigned), previously designated; a pronoun of the masculine gender, usually referring to a specified subject already indicated.
Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he
shall rule over thee.
Gen. iii. 16.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God;
him
shalt thou serve.
Deut. x. 20.
2.
Any one; the man or person; – used indefinitely, and usually followed by a relative pronoun.
He
that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
Prov. xiii. 20.
3.
Man; a male; any male person; – in this sense used substantively.
Chaucer.
I stand to answer thee,
Or any
he
, the proudest of thy sort.
Shakespeare
☞ When a collective noun or a class is referred to, he is of common gender. In early English,
he
referred to a feminine or neuter noun, or to one in the plural, as well as to noun in the masculine singular. In composition,
he
denotes a male animal; as, a
he
-goat.

Webster 1828 Edition


He

HE

, pronoun of the third person; nom. he; poss.his; obj. him. [L. id, for hid; hic.]
1.
A pronoun, a substitute for the third person, masculine gender, representing the man or male person named before.
Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Gen.3.
Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; him shalt thou serve. Deut.10.
2.
It often has reference to a person that is named in the subsequent part of the sentence. He is the man.
3.
He is often used without reference to any particular person, and may be referred to any person indefinitely that answers the description. It is then synonymous with any man.
He that walketh with wise men, shall be wise. Prov.13.
4.
He, when a substitute for man in its general sense, expressing mankind, is of common gender, representing, like its antecedent, the whole human race.
My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. Gen.6.
5.
Man; a male.
I stand to answer thee, or any he the proudest of thy sort.
In this use of he, in the ludicrous style, the word has no variation of case. In the foregoing sentence, he is in the objective case, or position, and the word is to be considered as a noun.
6.
He is sometimes prefixed to the names of animals to designate the male kind, as a he-goat, a he-bear. In such cases, he is to be considered as an adjective, or the two words as forming a compound.

Definition 2024


He

He

See also: Appendix:Variations of "he"

Translingual

Symbol

He

  1. (chemistry) Symbol for helium.

English

Pronoun

He

  1. Alternative letter-case form of he often used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
    I love the Lord for He is Great and Holy.

See also

Anagrams

he

he

See also: Appendix:Variations of "he"

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) enPR: , IPA(key): /ˈhiː/, (unstressed) IPA(key): /hi/, /i/
  • (US) enPR: , IPA(key): /hi/
  • Rhymes: -iː

Pronoun

he (third-person singular, masculine, nominative case, accusative him, reflexive himself, possessive his)

  1. (personal) A male person or animal already known or implied.
    • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises
      Though Bane’s sing-song voice gives his pronouncements a funny lilt, he doesn’t have any of the Joker’s deranged wit, and Nolan isn’t interested in undercutting his seriousness for the sake of a breezier entertainment.
  2. (personal, dated, sometimes proscribed, see usage notes) A person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant.
  3. (personal) An animal whose gender is unknown.
Usage notes
  • He was traditionally used as both a masculine and a gender-neutral pronoun, but since the mid 20th century generic usage has sometimes been considered sexist and limiting.[1][2] It is deprecated by some style guides, such as Wadsworth.[3] In place of generic he, writers and speakers may use he or she, alternate he and she as the indefinite person in their work, use the singular they, or rephrase their sentences to use plural they.
Synonyms
  • (person whose gender is unknown): he or she, he/she, s/he, they, or these other third-person pronouns
  • (animal whose gender is unknown): it

Determiner

he

  1. (African American Vernacular) Synonym of his
Derived terms
Quotations
  • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:he.
Translations
See also
References
  1. he” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
  2. When Words Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style (2007, ISBN 0495050253)
  3. The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook, 2009 MLA Update Edition (ISBN 1439081816), page 81: [A]void using the generic he or him when your subject could be either male or female. [...] Sexist: Before boarding, each passenger should make certain that he has his ticket. / Revised: Before boarding, passengers should make certain that they have their tickets.

Noun

he (plural hes)

  1. (uncountable) The game of tag, or it, in which the player attempting to catch the others is called "he".
  2. (informal) A male person.
    Alex totally is a he.

Etymology 2

Transliteration of various Semitic letters, such as Phoenician 𐤄 (h), Hebrew ה (h) and Syriac ܗ (h, ).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /heɪː/

Noun

he

  1. The name of the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
    • 1658, Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007), page 210:
      The same number in the Hebrew mysteries and Cabalistical accounts was the character of Generation; declared by the Letter He, the fifth in their Alphabet.
Translations
External links
See also
  • Appendix:Hebrew alphabet

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: I · that · was · #9: he · his · with · is

Anagrams


Aukan

Noun

he

  1. paca (large South and Central American rodent)

References


Breton

Pronoun

he

  1. her
    he zadher father

Catalan

Alternative forms

Verb

he

  1. first-person singular present indicative form of haver

Classical Nahuatl

Etymology

A natural expression.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [é]

Interjection

he

  1. an expression of physical pain; ouch.

References

  • Alonso de Molina (1571) Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, Editorial Porrúa, page 22r

Dutch

Interjection

he

  1. Misspelling of .
  2. Misspelling of .

Esperanto

Interjection

he

  1. interjection used to attract someone's attention, hey
  2. interjection expressing irony

Derived terms

  • he ho

See also


Faliscan

Alternative forms

Etymology

Cognate with Latin hic.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈheː/

Adverb

  1. here

Fasu

Noun

hẹ or hȩ́ (Fasu)

  1. water
  2. river
    he Aiyo : the River Aiyo
  3. lake
    he Kutupu : Lake Kutubu
  4. liquid

Synonyms

  • hi (Namumi)

References


Finnish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈhe/
  • Hyphenation: he
  • Rhymes: -e

Pronoun

he

  1. (personal) they (only of people).

Declension

Usage notes

  • In standard Finnish, he is practically never omitted, despite the verb showing both the person and the number. (compare the usage of hän, "she" / "he")

Synonyms

  • (dialectal): het
  • (dialectal): hyö
  • (colloquial): ne

See also


German Low German

Alternative forms

  • (in other dialects, including Mecklenburgisch Western Pomeranian and Low Prussian) hei

Etymology

From Old Saxon (he), from Proto-Germanic *hiz (his, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (this, here). Cognate with English he (he), Dutch hij (he), Danish han (he). Related to here.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɛɪ̯/

Pronoun

he m (genitive sin, dative 1 em, dative 2 jüm, accusative en)

  1. (in some dialects, including, Mecklenburgisch, Western Pomeranian and Low Prussian, personal) he (third-person singular masculine pronoun)
    (Low Prussian) He ös to lat.
    He is too late.

Usage notes

  • Which dative is employed depends on dialect, not on function.
  • Some dialects might consider any of the inflected forms obsolete.

Hawaiian

Article

he (indefinite)

  1. a, an
    he wahine au
    I am a woman
    he wahine kāna
    s/he has a wife

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /he/, /hɛ/

Noun

he (plural be-i)

  1. The name of the Latin script letter H/h.

See also


Japanese

Romanization

he

  1. rōmaji reading of (hiragana)
  2. rōmaji reading of (katakana)

Mandarin

Romanization

he

  1. Nonstandard spelling of .
  2. Nonstandard spelling of .
  3. Nonstandard spelling of .
  4. Nonstandard spelling of .

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Maori

Article

he

  1. a, an, some: indefinite article

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English , from Proto-Germanic *hiz (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (this, here).

Pronoun

he

  1. he (third-person singular masculine subject pronoun)

Descendants

  • Scots: he
  • English: he

Middle Low German

Pronunciation

  • Stem vowel: ê⁴
    • (originally) IPA(key): /heː/

Etymology

From Old Saxon , from Proto-Germanic *hiz.

Pronoun

  1. (third person singular masculine nominative) he

Declension


Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hiz (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (this, here). Cognate with Old Frisian , (he), Old Saxon hie, (he), Old Norse hánn, hann (he), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌼𐌰 (himma, to this). Related to hēr.

Pronoun

 m (accusative hine, genitive his, dative him)

  1. he

Descendants

  • Middle English: he
    • Scots: he
    • English: he

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hiz, from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (this, here).

Pronoun

 m

  1. he

Declension

Descendants

  • German Low German: he

Portuguese

Verb

he

  1. Obsolete spelling of é

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English he, from Old English (he), from Proto-Germanic *hiz (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (this, here). Cognate with English he (he), North Frisian hi (he), Saterland Frisian hie (he), West Frisian hy (he), Dutch hij (he), German Low German he (he), Danish han (he), Norwegian han (he).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hi/, /hɪ/
  • Rhymes: -iː

Pronoun

he (third-person singular, masculine, nominative case; accusative him, reflexive himsel, possessive his)

  1. he

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /e̞/
  • Homophones: , e

Etymology 1

From Latin habeō.

Verb

he

  1. First-person singular (yo) present indicative form of haber.
See also
  • (with acute accent)

Etymology 2

From Arabic هَا (); related to Portuguese eis.

Adverb

he

  1. (poetic, dated) here is
Usage notes
  • Takes pronoun suffixes, e.g. heme (here I am), and is mostly used together with aquí, ahí, allí.
See also

Etymology 3

Noun

he f (plural hes)

  1. he; the Hebrew letter ה

Swedish

Etymology

Related to häva.

Verb

he

  1. (regional, colloquial) to put

Turkish

Etymology 1

Noun

he (definite accusative heyi, plural heler)

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter H/h.

See also

Etymology 2

Particle

he

  1. Alternative form of ha

Interjection

he

  1. Alternative form of ha