den

Clipping of English Dene.

den

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Slavey. (macrolanguage)

From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).

• IPA^(key): /dɛn/, enPR: dĕn
• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /dɪn/, enPR: dĭn

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn
• Homophone: din (pin–pen merger)

den (plural dens)

1. A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.

   Synonyms: lair; luster; Wiktionary appendix of animal terms, including their homes

   a den of robbers

   Daniel was put into the lions’ den.

2. A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.

   a den of vice

   an opium den; a gambling den

   • 1980, Colin Hay, Ron Strykert, “Down Under”, performed by Men at Work:

     Lying in a den in Bombay
     With a slack jaw and not much to say

3. A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.

   Synonym: family room

4. Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”).

   Our little girls love using bedsheets and other stuff around the house to make dens in the living room and pretending they're on adventures.

5. (UK, Scotland, obsolete) A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
   • 1806, Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., including many of his Original Letters:

     I have made several visits of late to the Den of Rubislaw

6. A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.

den (third-person singular simple present dens, present participle denning, simple past and past participle denned)

1. (reflexive) To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.
2. (intransitive, zoology) Of an animal, to use as a den; to take up residence in.
   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 203:

     Although present in virtually all habitats, it preferred to den in caves, so its distribution, especially in cold, northern areas, may have been limited to limestone and other rocky regions where caves form.

   • 2023 August 30, Patrick Greenfield, “Why it may be time to stop using the polar bear as a symbol of the climate crisis”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     “Denning” – behaviour around making dens – has changed and bears are swimming long distances, but, says Aars, there is still enough sea ice in the spring for the bears to hunt successfully.

From Old French denier, from Latin denarius.

den

1. Abbreviation of denier (a unit of weight).

den (plural dens)

1. (Northumbria, chiefly in place names) Alternative form of dene.

den (not comparable)

1. Pronunciation spelling of then, representing AAVE, Bermuda English.

• good-den

• -end, DNE, End, NDE, NED, Ned, edn., end, end-, ned

From Dutch den.

• IPA^(key): /dɛn/

den (plural denne)

1. pine (tree)

• Tone: LL^[1]

den

1. (Twi) hard

   nsa yɛ den ― the hand is hard^[2]

(Nouns)

• denhyɛ

(Adverbs)

• denneennen

(Adjectives)

• dennen

den

1. child
2. fruit

(Sense 1)

• denkɛ
• denkundi
• denkura
• denmarayɔrɔ
• denmisɛn
• denmuso
• denso

den (intransitive)

1. to bear fruit

From Proto-Brythonic *dün, from Proto-Celtic *gdonyos (“human, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰom-yo- (“earthling, human”), a derivation of *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdẽːn/

den m

1. human being
2. person, man
3. husband

den

1. inflection of dar:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

den

1. inflection of dèar:
   1. accusative singular masculine
   2. dative plural

den

1. inflection of dèar:
   1. accusative singular masculine
   2. dative plural

• “den” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

From Old Cornish den, from Proto-Brythonic *dün, from Proto-Celtic *gdonyos (“human, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰom-yo- (“earthling, human”), a derivation of *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”).

• (Revived Middle Cornish) IPA^(key): [dɛːn]
• (Revived Late Cornish) IPA^(key): [deːn]

den m (plural tus)

1. man
2. person

• “den” in Cornish Dictionary / Gerlyver Kernewek, Akademi Kernewek.

• IPA^(key): [ˈdɛn]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn

Inherited from Old Czech den, from Proto-Slavic *dьnь (“day”).

den m inan or (archaic or literary) m anim (relational adjective denní)

1. day (24 hours, usually from midnight to midnight)

   jednoho dne ― one day, someday

   po několika dnech ― after a few days

   za pár dní ― in a couple of days

   Jednoho dne tě chytí. ― They're gonna catch you one day.

2. daytime (time between sunrise and sunset)
3. (astronomy) day (rotational period of a body orbiting a star)

   Den na Merkuru trvá téměř 59 pozemských dní. ― A day on Mercury lasts almost 59 terrestrial days.

when animate:

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

den

1. genitive plural of dno

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

den

1. genitive plural of dna

• “den”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “den”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “den”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• dne

From Old Norse þann, the accusative form of sá, from Proto-Germanic *sa (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *só (“this, that”).

• IPA^(key): /dɛnˀ/, [ˈd̥ɛnˀ], [d̥ɛn], [d̥n̩]

den c (neuter det, plural de)

1. (definite) the (used before an adjective preceding a noun)

   bilen - the car; den røde bil - the red car

• -en

den c (neuter det, plural de)

1. (demonstrative) that, the
2. (personal) it

From Middle Dutch dan, danne, denne (“pine tree”), from Old Dutch *danna, from Proto-West Germanic *dannā (“pine tree”). Cognate with German Tanne.

• IPA^(key): /dɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: den
• Rhymes: -ɛn

den m (plural dennen, diminutive dennetje n)

1. pine, pine tree

   Synonyms: dennenboom, pijnboom

   Hypernym: naaldboom

From Middle Dutch den.

• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /dən/
• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /dɛn/

den

1. (archaic) dative masculine/neuter/plural of de (“the”)

   Nederland in den goeden ouden tijd. ― The Netherlands in the good old days.

   De baron gaf den koetsier een wenk en het rijtuig rolde heen. ― The baron gave the coachman a sign and the carriage rode away. (from the story Gaston von Frankrijk by J.J.A. Goeverneur)

   In den beginne schiep God den hemel en de aarde. ― In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2. (archaic) accusative masculine singular of de
3. (Southern, dialectal) masculine singular of de

• The distinction of the dative case, which had long been frail and without any basis in actual speech, widely fell out of use over the course of the 19th century. The use of den for the masculine object case, however, remained usual in the written language until the spelling reform of 1947. Since then only de is generally used in standard Dutch. Den survives in idiomatic expressions, including surnames (e.g. Van den Berg).
• In Flemish, Brabantian, and Limburgish dialects and vernaculars, den is still widely used with masculine nouns, but without any case distinction. Often den is used before vowels and certain consonants, while de is used before other consonants.
• The now common Netherlandic pronunciation /dɛn/ is a spelling pronunciation. The original pronunciation (still in use in Belgium) is with a schwa, /dən/.

• op den duur

• IPA^(key): /deːn/ (stressed)
• IPA^(key): /den/, /dən/ (unstressed)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: dehn
• Rhymes: -eːn

den (definite)

1. inflection of der (“the”):
   1. accusative masculine singular
   2. dative plural

den

1. that; whom; accusative masculine singular of der

• de’n (superseded)

• IPA^(key): /dʲɛnˠ/, /dʲənˠ/
• (Connemara, Aran Islands) IPA^(key): /ɡənˠ/

den

1. contraction of de an

   Bhris mé den chrann é. ― I broke it off the tree.

   Fuair sé bás den ocras. ― He died of hunger.

This contraction is obligatory, i.e. *de an never appears uncontracted. It triggers lenition of a following consonant other than d, s, or t.

den

1. Rōmaji transcription of でん

• IPA^(key): /den/, [dən]

den m

1. unstressed form of deen

• (Johor-Selangor) IPA^(key): /den/
• (Riau-Lingga) IPA^(key): /dɪn/
• Rhymes: -den, -en

den (Jawi spelling دين)

1. I, me, my

• aku
• saya

den

1. nonstandard spelling of dēn
2. nonstandard spelling of dèn

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ghen. Related to Proto-Albanian *džana (“voice”) and Albanian zë (“voice”).^[1]

den

1. voice

den

1. inflection of die:
   1. masculine accusative/dative singular
   2. neuter dative singular
   3. dative plural

From Old English denn, from Proto-West Germanic *dani. Forms with a final vowel are probably generalised datives.

• denne

• IPA^(key): /dɛn/, /ˈdɛn(ə)/

den (plural dennes)

1. A cave or cavern.
2. A chamber of residence:
   1. A den (animal lair)
      • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[4], published c. 1410, Matheu 8:20, page 3v, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

        and iheſus ſeide to him / foxis han dennes ⁊ bꝛiddis of heuene han neeſtis.· but mannes ſone haþ not where he ſchal reſte his heed

        But Jesus said to him, "Foxes have dens and the birds up above have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere he can rest his head."

   2. A refuge; a shelter.
3. A catacomb (subterranean grave)
4. (anatomy) A cavity; a division.

• English: den
• Scots: den

• “den, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Anglo-Norman deen and continental Old French deien, from Latin decānus.

• deen, deene, dene, deyne, doien, dyen

• IPA^(key): /dɛːn/

den (plural denes)

1. A dean (ecclesiastical official)
2. A leader of a group of ten.
3. An officer of a guild.
4. (rare, by extension) A leader of a group.

• English: dean

• “dēn, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

den

1. alternative form of dene

den

1. alternative form of deyne

den

1. (West Midlands) alternative form of dyne

• IPA^(key): /dɛn/
• Rhymes: -en

den

1. I, me, my; first person singular (informal use; in dialogue with the same age person or with those who are younger)

• ambo
• awak

den

1. behavior

From English then.

den

1. then
   • 2025 April 23, Orla Guerin, “More dan 150 pipo injure as earthquakes shake buildings for Turkey Istanbul”, in BBC News Pidgin‎^[5]:

     For now, no immediate reports of casualties or wider damage, but Istanbul officials say dem dey check buildings, den warn pipo to stay clear of potentially-damaged sites.

     For now, there are no immediate reports of casualties or wider damage, but Istanbul officials say they are checking buildings, then warning people to stay clear of potentially damaged sites.

• IPA^(key): (stressed) /ˈdɛn/, (unstressed) /dən/

den (genitive dens)

1. it; third person singular, masculine/feminine gender. Nominative, accusative or dative.

den m or f

1. (demonstrative pronoun) that

den m or f

1. The; only used if there is an adjective in front of the noun.

   bilen: the car → den røde bilen: the red car

• det
• de
• dem

• end, ned

From Old Norse þann, þenn, masculine accusative singular of sá, from Proto-Germanic *sa, from Proto-Indo-European *só.

• IPA^(key): /dɛnː/

den m or f (neuter singular det, plural dei)

1. (demonstrative determiner) that

   Eg vil ha den bilen.

   I want that car.

• den og den

den m or f (neuter singular det, plural dei)

1. the; only used if there is an adjective or numeral to the noun

   Han køyrde den raude bilen.

   He drove the red car.

• Usually put preceding the noun. In some rare cases of poetry, the article may come after the noun.
• The noun is nearly always in its definite form. Exceptions include fixed expressions and poetry. Attributive adjectives are always in their definite forms.
• May be omitted when used with the determiner same, used with an ordinal number, or an adjective denotes an inherent or natural attribute of the thing. Omission occurs more frequently, colloquially, in certain dialects.

  same tingen ― [the] same thing

  fyrste kvelden ― [the] first night

  svarte natta ― [the] dark night

den

1. (demonstrative pronoun) that one

   Eg vil ha den.

   I want that one.

• “den” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “den”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016
• “den” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dьnь.

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈdɛn/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈdɛn/

den m inan (diminutive dnek)

1. day; daytime (period between sunrise and sundown)
2. day (24 hour period)
3. (often in the plural) day (unspecified period, particularly in the past)
4. (in the plural) days (life)
5. (religion) day; holiday
6. (religion) day; doomsday

• Czech: den

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “den”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

From Portuguese dentro and Spanish dentro and Kabuverdianu dentu.

den

1. in
2. inside
3. below

Compare German den.

den m (definite)

1. accusative masculine singular of der (“the”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn
• Syllabification: den

den n

1. genitive plural of dno

• dein, денъ (den)

Inherited from Norwegian Nynorsk den or its northern dialectal palatalized form.

Unknown. Possible examples:

• IPA^(key): /dɛnː/ (Norwegian accent)
• IPA^(key): /dɛɲː/ (palatalized, Northen Norwegian, attested as dein)

The attested Cyrillic spelling денъ indicates no palatalization. The letter "е" in non-Russian words may have two different ways of pronunciation (as /je/ or /e/). The variant closest to Norwegian pronunciation would be /e/:

• IPA^(key): [den], /dɛn/

den

1. this, that

The pronoun has no conjugated forms, in difference from Norwegian, which conjugates this pronoun after gender and number (e. g. det), which are absent in Russenorsk.

• etta

• den dag

• IPA^(key): /ˈden/ [ˈd̪ẽn]
• Rhymes: -en
• Syllabification: den

den

1. inflection of dar:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

• dem (archaic)

From English them.

• IPA^(key): /den/

den

1. they
2. them

den

1. their (possessive pronoun)

den

1. the (plural definite article)

• then, dhen (obsolete)
• ren (colloquial, pronunciation spelling)

From Old Swedish þæn, accusative of sā(r), from Old Norse sá, from Proto-Germanic *sa, from Proto-Indo-European *só.

• IPA^(key): /dɛnː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /rɛnː/ (unstressed, informal)

den c

1. it (for common gender nouns)

   Jag ser Nisses bil. Den är röd.

   I see Nisse's car. It is red.

   Jag har tappat bort min nyckel. Har du sett den?

   I have lost my key. Have you seen it?

   Skalbaggen är mycket hungrig. Mata den varje timme.

   The beetle is very hungry. Feed it every hour.

   Mata'ren varje timme [Common unstressed pronunciation variant – see IPA. /rɛnː/ is especially common in some dialects.]

   Feed it every hour

   Ge'ren till Nisse [Common unstressed pronunciation variant]

   Give it to Nisse

   Seruren? ["Ser du den?" – common unstressed pronunciation variant]

   Do you see it?

2. that (for common gender nouns)

   Den bilen är röd, men bilen där borta är grön

   That car is red, but the car over there is green

   1. the one, that one (for common gender nouns)

      Den stora bilen – den som Margit äger – är gul

      The big car – the one that Margit owns – is yellow

      – Vilken glass tog du? – Jag tog den med marshmallows.

      – Which ice cream did you have [take]? – I had [took] the one with marshmallows.

      – Vilken bil tycker du är finast? – Den (där)! *Pekar*

      – Which car do you think is the prettiest? – That one (there)! *Points* ["Där" (there) is optional, and could also be "här" (here) for example, for a nearby object, like in English]

3. he, she, whoever, "the one"

   Den som lever får se

   Time will tell ("He who lives will (gets to) see" – idiomatic)

   Den som gräver en grop åt andra faller ofta själv däri

   He who digs a pit for others often falls himself therein (proverb based on the Bible – idiomatically old-fashioned language in Swedish as well)

den c (definite)

1. the (when an adjective is used with a common gender noun in the definite – det is used for neuter gender nouns, and de for plural nouns, regardless of gender)

   en bil ― a car

   bilen ― the car

   en röd bil ― a red car

   den röda bilen ― the red car

   röda bilar ― red cars (for comparison – note that "röd" has the same inflection in the definite and plural)

   bilen den röda ― the red car (rare, poetic – intuitively, "the car, the red one" / "the car the red")

   • 1971, Evert Taube, “Änglamark”, in Äppelkriget:

     Kalla den Änglamarken eller Himlajorden om du vill. Jorden vi ärvde och lunden den gröna.

     Call it the Angel Ground or the Heaven Earth if you like. The Earth we inherited and the green grove

     (literally, “the grove the green”)

   1. the ... one (when the noun is implied, which is an idiomatic construction)

      – Vilken tröja vill du ha? – Den blå.

      – Which shirt do you want? – The blue one.

      – Vilken glass vill du ha? – Den största.

      – Which ice cream do you want? – The biggest (one).

"The [adjective] [noun]" is expressed as "den/det/de (common gender, neuter gender, and plural, respectively) [adjective inflected for definite] [noun inflected for definite]." For example, "smaskig" (yummy) and "hamburgare" (hamburger – common gender) turns into "den smaskiga hamburgaren" (the yummy-definite hamburger-definite), "röd" (red) and "hus" (house – neuter gender) turns into "det röda huset" (the red-definite house-definite), and "snabb" (fast) and "bilar" (cars) turns into "de snabba bilarna" (the fast-definite cars-definite). "Den/det/de" is not optional, except often being left out in proper nouns and other lexicalized noun phrases with an adjective that are in the definite (giving "smaskiga hamburgaren" something of a "pub name" feel) – see de for examples.

The definite form of an adjective is identical to the plural form except optionally having "-e" instead of "-a" in the singular for nouns whose natural gender is masculine. For example, "lång" (tall) and "man" (man) turns into either "den långe mannen" or "den långa mannen," while "lång" (tall) and "kvinna" (woman) can only be expressed as "den långa kvinnan." Present participles – like in "den sjungande kvinnan" (the singing woman) and "de simmande fiskarna" (the swimming fishes) – do not inflect, and stay the same in indefinite, definite, singular, and plural noun phrases.

The construction above is called "double definiteness," since it can be considered redundant. It also occurs in Norwegian and Faroese, but not in Danish, where "the red house" is "det røde hus."

• den in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• den in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• den in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• ned

From Mandarin 電／电 (diàn).

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /teːn˧˥/
• Tone numbers: den⁵
• Hyphenation: den

den (1957–1982 spelling den)

1. electricity