Question

What does ‘the’ actually mean?

Answer 1

1.
denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge."what's the matter?"2.used to point forward to a following qualifying or defining clause or phrase."the fuss that he made of her"

-gooogle

Answer 2

Well, the just directs our attention to the sentence's subject, so it's more of a describing word or directional word, theoretically.