an

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. The form of a used before words beginning with a vowel or with an unpronounced h: an elephant; an hour. See Usage Notes at a², every.
2. conj. Archaic And if; if.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The indefinite article. As between the two forms of this word, the general rule is that an be used before an initial vowel-sound of the following word, and a before an initial consonant-sound: thus, an eagle, an answer, also an hour (the h being silent); and a bird, a youth, a wonder, also a use, a eulogy, a one (these three words being pronounced as if they began with y or w). But an is still sometimes used before a consonant sound, especially before the weak consonant h; and in written style, and in more formal spoken style, an is by many (especially in England) required before the initial h of a wholly unaccented syllable, as if such an h were altogether silent: thus, an hotel, but a hostess; an historian, but a history; an hypothesis, but a hypothetical. In colloquial speech, and increasingly in writing, a is used in all these cases alike. As by its derivation, so also in meaning, an or a is a weaker or less distinct one. In certain phrases, and with certain nouns, it still has nearly the value of one: thus, two of a trade; they were both of a size; a hundred, a thousand, a million. Usually, as the indefinite article proper, it points out, in a loose way, an individual as one of a class containing more of the same kind: thus, give me a pint of milk; he ate an apple; they built a house; we see a man; the earth has a moon; our sun is a fixed star. Hence, before a proper noun, it implies extension of the name or character of the individual to a class: thus, he is a Cicero in eloquence; they built up a new England in America — that is, a person like Cicero, a country like England. A is used, apparently, before a plural noun, if few or many (now only great many, or good many) stands between: thus, a few apples, a great many soldiers; but the plural noun is here historically a genitive partitive dependent on few, many. It is used distributively, or with the meaning of each or every, in such phrases as two dollars a piece, three times a day, five cents an ounce; but a or an is here historically a preposition. See a. An or a always precedes the noun to which it belongs, and in general also any other adjective word qualifying the same noun; but what and such come before it. thus, what a shame! such a beauty; and so also any adjective preceded by how, or so, or as, or too: thus, how great a calamity, so rare a case, as good a man, too early a death. Many a is a phrase of peculiar meaning. See many.
2. Coordinate use: And; same as and, A.
3. Conditional use: If; same as and, B.
4. 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-.
5. 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).
6. A prefix of Anglo-Saxon origin, a reduced form of and- (which see), occurring unfelt in answer.
7. 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.
8. A prefix of Latin origin, a reduced form of ambi-, occurring (unfelt in English) in ancile, ancipital, anfractuous, etc.
9. A prefix of Greek origin, the fuller form of ἀ- privative (a-) preserved before a vowel, as in anarchy, anarthrous, anecdote, anomaly, etc.
10. A prefix of Greek origin, the form of ana- before a vowel, as in anode.
11. A suffix of Latin origin, forming adjectives which are or may be also used as nouns. It expresses various adjective relations, being used especially with proper names to form local or patrial adjectives or nouns, as Roman, Italian, Grecian, American, Fijian, etc.; terms indicating party, sect, or system, as Arian, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Mohammedan, Copernican, Linnean, etc., so in Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Unitarian, etc.; and in zoology, to form adjectives and nouns from names of classes or orders, as mammalian, reptilian, etc. As an English formative it is confined chiefly to words which may be made to assume a Latin type, having here also the euphonic variant -ian, especially in proper adjectives, as in Darwinian, Johnsonian, etc.

Wiktionary

1. conj. archaic If, so long as.
2. conj. archaic as if; as though.
3. prep. In each; to or for each; per.
4. n. The first letter of the Georgian alphabet, ა (mkhedruli), Ⴀ (asomtavruli) or ⴀ (nuskhuri).
5. Form, used before a vowel sound, of a

GNU Webster's 1913

1. 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.
2. conj. If; -- a word used by old English authors.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an associate degree in nursing