Word ignored by alphabetizers

The answer

THE

3 letters. See every clue for this answer on the THE answer page.

Used 7 times across 6 distinct years; most recently in 2025; first recorded in 1998. It appears in 4 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other clues for THE

Every other clue in this collection answered by THE, most used first.

• Article. - used 121 times, most recently in 1997
• Common article - used 99 times, most recently in 2026
• Definite article - used 87 times, most recently in 2026
• Not just any - used 83 times, most recently in 2026
• Everyday article - used 62 times, most recently in 2025
• Not just "a" - used 46 times, most recently in 2026
• Fill in __ blank - used 37 times, most recently in 2026
• English article - used 26 times, most recently in 2026
• Common title word - used 25 times, most recently in 2022
• Much-used article - used 23 times, most recently in 2021
• Common title starter - used 21 times, most recently in 2026
• Commonest English word - used 21 times, most recently in 2026
• Most common English word - used 21 times, most recently in 2026
• Café alternative - used 19 times, most recently in 2025
• Common title start - used 14 times, most recently in 2025
• Winnie-___-Pooh - used 14 times, most recently in 2025
• Start of many titles - used 13 times, most recently in 2024
• Useful article - used 13 times, most recently in 2014
• "We ___ People . . ." - used 13 times, most recently in 2024
• Word ignored when alphabetizing - used 13 times, most recently in 2025
• French beverage - used 12 times, most recently in 2022
• Popular article - used 12 times, most recently in 2026
• Tea, in Tours - used 12 times, most recently in 2001
• "What __ . . ." - used 12 times, most recently in 2024
• Frequent title starter - used 11 times, most recently in 2026
• Genuine article - used 10 times, most recently in 2017
• Most common word in English - used 10 times, most recently in 2026
• Part of BTW - used 10 times, most recently in 2026
• Start of many book titles - used 10 times, most recently in 2026
• "___ End" - used 9 times, most recently in 2021
• Part of many titles - used 9 times, most recently in 2013
• "That'll be -- day!" - used 9 times, most recently in 2026
• It's definite - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• Word in many band names - used 8 times, most recently in 2024
• Word often ignored when alphabetizing - used 8 times, most recently in 2026
• "What's ___ use?" - used 7 times, most recently in 2025
• Word alphabetizers ignore - used 6 times, most recently in 2013

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Society page word - NEE, used 182 times
• "My word!" - GEE, used 155 times
• Itinerary word - VIA, used 119 times
• Latin 101 word - AMO, used 112 times
• Word before a maiden name - NEE, used 102 times
• Towel word - HIS, used 85 times

Search the clue collection

Search by clue words or by answer, or type a pattern with the letters you have and a blank for each square you do not know. The characters _ ? . and - all work as blanks.