Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • article The form of a used before words beginning with a vowel sound.
  • conjunction And if; if.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A prefix of Anglo-Saxon origin, the same as on- and a-, occurring unfelt in anent, anon, anan, aneal, aneal, etc., and with accent in anvil (but in this and some other words perhaps originally and-: see an).
  • A prefix of Anglo-Saxon origin, a reduced form of and- (which see), occurring unfelt in answer.
  • An earlier form of on, retained until the last century in certain phrases, as an edge, an end, now only on edge, on end; in present use only as an unfelt prefix an- or reduced a-. See an-, a-.
  • A prefix of Latin origin, usually an assimilation of ad- before n-, as in annex, annul, announce, etc., but sometimes representing Latin in-, as in anoint, annoy.
  • A prefix of Latin origin, a reduced form of ambi-, occurring (unfelt in English) in ancile, ancipital, anfractuous, etc.
  • noun The indefinite article.
  • Coordinate use: And; same as and, A.
  • Conditional use: If; same as and, B.
  • A prefix of Greek origin, the fuller form of - privative (a-) preserved before a vowel, as in anarchy, anarthrous, anecdote, anomaly, etc.
  • A prefix of Greek origin, the form of ana- before a vowel, as in anode.
  • A suffix of Latin origin, forming adjectives which are or may be also used as nouns.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as “twice an hour,” “once an age,” a shilling an ounce (see 2d a, 2), it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every.
  • conjunction If; -- a word used by old English authors.
  • conjunction and if; if.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • determiner, article Form, used before a vowel sound, of a
  • conjunction archaic If, so long as.
  • conjunction archaic as if; as though.
  • noun The first letter of the Georgian alphabet, (mkhedruli), (asomtavruli) or ⴀ (nuskhuri).
  • preposition In each; to or for each; per.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an associate degree in nursing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English ān, one; see oi-no- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, short for and, and, from Old English; see and.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English an

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Old English preposition an/on.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English ān.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Georgian.

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Examples

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  • Things. Matter.

    July 15, 2008