one vs the

one

particle
  • Used to emphasize or explain something, with an implied antecedent. 

  • Used at the end of a sentence to highlight the characteristics of someone or something. 

  • A nominalizer; used to form a noun phrase without a head noun. 

num
  • The cardinality of the smallest nonempty set. 

  • The first positive number in the set of natural numbers. 

  • The number represented by the Arabic numeral 1; the numerical value equal to that cardinal number. 

  • The ordinality of an element which has no predecessor, usually called first or number one. 

noun
  • One run scored by hitting the ball and running between the wickets; a single. 

  • A joke or amusing anecdote. 

  • A particularly special or compatible person or thing. 

  • A one-dollar bill. 

  • Used instead of ! to amplify an exclamation, parodying unskilled typists who forget to press the shift key while typing exclamation points, thus typing "1". 

  • The neutral element with respect to multiplication in a ring. 

  • One o'clock, either a.m. or p.m. 

  • The digit or figure 1. 

adj
  • Whole, entire. 

  • Being an unknown person with the specified name; see also "a certain". 

  • The same. 

  • In agreement. 

  • Being a preeminent example. 

  • Sole, only. 

  • Being a single, unspecified thing; a; any. 

  • Of a period of time, being particular. 

pron
  • The first mentioned of two things or people, as opposed to the other. 

  • Functions as a relative pronoun at the end of a relative clause. 

  • Any person (applying to people in general). 

  • One thing (among a group of others); one member of a group. 

  • Any person, entity or thing. 

  • Used as a noun substituent following a possessive determiner. 

verb
  • To cause to become one; to gather into a single whole; to unite. 

the

article
  • Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. 

  • Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. 

  • Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar. 

  • Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive. 

  • Used before a body part (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. 

  • When stressed, indicates that it describes an object which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. 

  • Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it hints at is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already completely specified. 

  • Used before an object considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. 

  • Used before a noun modified by a restrictive relative clause, indicating that the noun refers to a single referent defined by the relative clause. 

  • Used before a superlative or an ordinal number modifying a noun, to indicate that the noun refers to a single item. 

adv
  • With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives. 

  • With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none. 

prep
  • For each; per. 

How often have the words one and the occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )