a complex linguistic expression that picks out exactly one thing

a descriptive phrase so used that it could describe only one thing

an expression that appears to simply refer to some thing but instead actually makes a claim that the uniquely described thing exists

a particular case of a proper name, i

a variety of singular term

coined in [Russel12] definition in [LL96]... altavista search for definite description

A definite description is a denoting phrase in the form of "the X" where X is a noun-phrase or a singular common noun. The definite description is proper if X applies to a unique individual or object. For example: "the tallest student in this class", "the first person in space", and "the 42nd President of the United States of America", are proper.