| 1. | the first letter of the English alphabet, a vowel. |
| 2. | any spoken sound represented by the letter A or a, as in bake, hat, father, or small. |
| 3. | something having the shape of an A. |
| 4. | a written or printed representation of the letter A or a. |
| 5. | a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter A or a. |
| 6. | from A to Z, from beginning to end; thoroughly; completely: He knows the Bible from A to Z. |
| 7. | not know from A to B, to know nothing; be ignorant. |
| 1. | not any particular or certain one of a class or group: a man; a chemical; a house. |
| 2. | a certain; a particular: one at a time; two of a kind; A Miss Johnson called. |
| 3. | another; one typically resembling: a Cicero in eloquence; a Jonah. |
| 4. | one (used before plural nouns that are preceded by a quantifier singular in form): a hundred men (compare hundreds of men); a dozen times (compare dozens of times). |
| 5. | indefinitely or nonspecifically (used with adjectives expressing number): a great many years; a few stars. |
| 6. | one (used before a noun expressing quantity): a yard of ribbon; a score of times. |
| 7. | any; a single: not a one. |
| 1. | the first in order or in a series. |
| 2. | (sometimes lowercase ) (in some grading systems) a grade or mark, as in school or college, indicating the quality of a student's work as excellent or superior. |
| 3. | (sometimes lowercase ) (in some school systems) a symbol designating the first semester of a school year. |
| 4. | Music.
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| 5. | Physiology. a major blood group, usually enabling a person whose blood is of this type to donate blood to persons of group A or AB and to receive blood from persons of O or A. Compare ABO system. |
| 6. | (sometimes lowercase ) the medieval Roman numeral for 50 or 500. Compare Roman numerals. |
| 7. | Chemistry. (formerly) argon. |
| 8. | Chemistry, Physics. mass number. |
| 9. | Biochemistry.
|
| 10. | Logic. universal affirmative. |
| 11. | British. a designation for a motion picture recommended as suitable for adults. Compare AA (def. 5), U (def. 5), X (def. 9). |
| 12. | a proportional shoe width size, narrower than B and wider than AA. |
| 13. | a proportional brassiere cup size, smaller than B and larger than AA. |
| 14. | a quality rating for a corporate or municipal bond, lower than AA and higher than BBB. |
| are; ares. |
| universal affirmative. |
| angstrom. |
| atomic (used in combination): A-bomb; A-plant. |
| a reduced form of the Old English preposition on, meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,” preserved before a noun in a prepositional phrase, forming a predicate adjective or an adverbial element (afoot; abed; ashore; aside; away), or before an adjective (afar; aloud; alow), as a moribund prefix with a verb (acknowledge), and in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing (set the bells aringing); and added to a verb stem with the force of a present participle (ablaze; agape; aglow; astride; and originally, awry). |
| an old point-action prefix, not referring to an act as a whole, but only to the beginning or end: She arose (rose up). They abided by their beliefs (remained faithful to the end). |
| a plural ending of nouns borrowed from Greek and Latin: phenomena; criteria; data; errata; genera. |
| a feminine singular ending of nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek, also used in Neo-Latin coinages to Latinize bases of any origin, and as a Latin substitute for the feminine ending -ē of Greek words: anabaena; cinchona; pachysandra. |
| an ending of personal names forming feminines from masculines: Georgia; Roberta. |
| a suffix designating the oxide of the chemical element denoted by the stem: alumina; ceria; thoria. |
| 1. | about. |
| 2. | acre; acres. |
| 3. | active. |
| 4. | adjective. |
| 5. | alto. |
| 6. | ampere; amperes. |
| 7. | year. Origin: < L annō, abl. of annus ![]() |
| 8. | anonymous. |
| 9. | answer. |
| 10. | before. Origin: < L ante ![]() |
| 11. | are; ares. |
| 12. | Baseball. assist; assists. |
| 1. | Andrew (Jackson, Jr.), born 1932, U.S. clergyman, civil-rights leader, politician, and diplomat: mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, since 1981. |
| 2. | Art(hur Henry), 1866–1944, U.S. cartoonist and author. |
| 3. | Brigham, 1801–77, U.S. leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
| 4. | Charles, 1864–1922, U.S. army colonel: highest-ranking black officer in World War I. |
| 5. | Denton T. (Cy ), 1867–1955, U.S. baseball player. |
| 6. | Edward, 1683–1765, English poet. |
| 7. | Ella, 1867–1956, Irish poet and mythologist in the U.S. |
| 8. | Lester Willis (“Pres”; “Prez” ), 1909–59, U.S. jazz tenor saxophonist. |
| 9. | Owen D., 1874–1962, U.S. lawyer, industrialist, government administrator, and financier. |
| 10. | Stark, 1881–1963, U.S. drama critic, novelist, and playwright. |
| 11. | Thomas, 1773–1829, English physician, physicist, mathematician, and Egyptologist. |
| 12. | Whitney M., Jr., 1921–71, U.S. social worker and educator: executive director of the National Urban League 1961–71. |
| a 5 abbr.
|
| A abbr.
|
am·pere (ām'pîr') n. Abbr. A
[After André Marie Ampère.] |
ang·strom or ång·strom (āng'strəm) n. Abbr. A or Å or angst A unit of length equal to one hundred-millionth (10-8) of a centimeter, used especially to specify radiation wavelengths. Also called angstrom unit. See Table at measurement. [After Anders Jonas Ångström.] |
"[I]t naturally happened that all these a- prefixes were at length confusedly lumped together in idea, and the resultant a- looked upon as vaguely intensive, rhetorical, euphonic, or even archaic, and wholly otiose." [OED]
A
A Nasdaq stock symbol specifying that the stocks are Class "A" shares of the company.
Investopedia Commentary
Nasdaq-listed securities have four or five characters. If a fifth letter appears, it identifies the issue as other than a single issue of common stock or capital stock.
See also: Class, Nasdaq, Stock Symbol
Also spelled: a, A, A
a
Used in the dividend column of stock transaction tables in newspapers to indicate a cash payment in addition to regular dividends during the year: 2.75a.
Used in money market mutual fund transaction tables in newspapers to indicate a yield that may include capital gains and losses as well as current interest: AmCap Reserv a.
A
a abbr.
area
asymmetrical
specific absorption coefficient (often italic)
systemic arterial blood (used as a subscript)
total acidity
A abbr.
absorbance (often italic)
alveolar gas (used as a subscript)
adenine
ammeter
AMP (in polynucleotides)
ampere
angstrom
area
a- or an-
pref.
Without; not: acellular.
Å abbr.
angstrom
ab- 2
pref.
Used to indicate an electromagnetic unit in the centimeter-gram-second system: abcoulomb.
an- pref.
Variant of a-.
Young , Thomas. 1773-1829.
British physician and physicist who in 1801 postulated the three-color theory of color vision. Young also discovered (1801) astigmatism and described accommodation.
A
Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, as Omega is the last. These letters occur in the text of Rev. 1:8,11; 21:6; 22:13, and are represented by "Alpha" and "Omega" respectively (omitted in R.V., 1:11). They mean "the first and last." (Comp. Heb. 12:2; Isa. 41:4; 44:6; Rev. 1:11,17; 2:8.) In the symbols of the early Christian Church these two letters are frequently combined with the cross or with Christ's monogram to denote his divinity.
| a absent |
A
|