des

Des is a name and a common word in several languages. In English, Des is a masculine given name or nickname, usually short for Desmond, though it can stand alone. It is used by various public figures, such as the English entertainer Des O’Connor. As a surname, it appears only rarely in some communities.

In French, des is the plural indefinite article, equivalent to “some” or “any” before a plural noun. It is the contracted form of de + les. For example, des pommes means some apples. It also appears in phrases expressing part of a larger whole, such as la plupart des gens (most of the people). The form is always spelled des, regardless of gender, and its pronunciation is typically with a soft z sound in fluent speech.

When capitalized as DES, the abbreviation can denote several unrelated terms in different fields, most notably the Data Encryption Standard, a historic symmetric-key algorithm; it may also refer to other uses such as the Dark Energy Survey or diethylstilbestrol.