an

indefinite article

1. the form of a before an initial vowel sound (an arch; an honor) and sometimes, especially in British English, before an initial unstressed syllable beginning with a silent or weakly pronounced h: an historian.

conjunction

1. Pronunciation Spelling. and.
2. Archaic. if.

noun

1. the Sumerian god of heaven: the counterpart of the Akkadian Anu.

Symbol, Chemistry.

1. actinon.

1. Anglo-Norman.

1. a prefix occurring before stems beginning with a vowel or h in loanwords from Greek, where it means “not,” “without,” “lacking” (anarchy; anecdote); used in the formation of compound words: anelectric.

1. variant of ad- before n: announce.

1. variant of ana- before a vowel: anion.

1. in the year.

1. Anglo-Norman.
2. Associate in Nursing.

1. a suffix occurring originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nouns denoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan), and now productively forming English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern. Attached to geographic names, it denotes provenance or membership (American; Chicagoan; Tibetan), the latter sense now extended to membership in social classes, religious denominations, etc., in adjectives formed from various kinds of noun bases (Episcopalian; pedestrian; Puritan; Republican) and membership in zoological taxa (acanthocephalan; crustacean). Attached to personal names, it has the additional senses “contemporary with” (Elizabethan; Jacobean) or “proponent of” (Hegelian; Freudian) the person specified by the noun base. The suffix -an, and its variant -ian also occurs in a set of personal nouns, mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works with the referent of the base noun (comedian; grammarian; historian; theologian); this usage is especially productive with nouns ending in -ic (electrician; logician; technician). See -ian for relative distribution with that suffix.

determiner

1. a form of the indefinite article used before an initial vowel soundan old car; an elf; an honour

conjunction

1. (subordinating) an obsolete or dialect word for if See and (def. 9)

the internet domain name for

1. Netherlands Antilles

noun

1. myth the Sumerian sky godBabylonian counterpart: Anu

the chemical symbol for

1. actinon

abbreviation for

1. Anglo-Norman

prefix

1. not; withoutanaphrodisiac

suffix

1. (forming adjectives and nouns) belonging to or relating to; a person belonging to or coming fromEuropean
2. (forming adjectives and nouns) typical of or resembling; a person typical ofElizabethan
3. (forming adjectives and nouns) adhering to or following; an adherent ofChristian
4. (forming nouns) a person who specializes or is expert indietitian; phonetician

indefinite article before words beginning with vowels, 12c., from Old English an (with a long vowel) “one; lone,” also used as a prefix an- “single, lone;” see one for the divergence of that word from this. Also see a, of which this is the older, fuller form.

In other European languages, identity between indefinite article and the word for “one” remains explicit (e.g. French un, German ein, etc.) Old English got by without indefinite articles: He was a good man in Old English was he wæs god man. Circa 15c., a and an commonly were written as one word with the following noun, which contributed to the confusion over how such words as newt and umpire ought to be divided (see N).

In Shakespeare, etc., an sometimes is a contraction of as if (a usage first attested c.1300), especially before it.

1

privative prefix, from Greek an-, “not, without,” related to ne- and cognate with Sanskrit an-, Latin in-, Gothic and Old English un- (see un- (1)).

word-forming element meaning “pertaining to,” from Latin -anus, in some cases via French -ain, -en.

2

form of Latin ad- before -n- (see ad-).

pref.

1. Variant ofa-