Word Meanings - A.] - Book Publishers vocabulary database

If; -- a word used by old English authors. Shak. Nay, an thou dalliest, then I am thy foe. B. Jonson. An if, and if; if. (more info) indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat

Additional info about word: A.]

If; -- a word used by old English authors. Shak. Nay, an thou dalliest, then I am thy foe. B. Jonson. An if, and if; if. (more info) 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 , it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every. Note: An is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound; as, an enemy, an hour. It in also often used before h sounded, when the accent of the word falls on the second syllable; as, an historian, an hyena, an heroic deed. Many writers use a before h in such positions. Anciently an was used before consonants as well as vowels. in introducing conditional clauses, like Icel. enda if, the same word as and. Prob. and was originally pleonastic before the conditional

Related words: (words related to A.])

• NUMBERFUL
  Numerous.
• ENGLISHWOMAN
  Fem. of Englishman. Shak.
• SINGULAR
  Existing by itself; single; individual. The idea which represents one . . . determinate thing, is called a singular idea, whether simple, complex, or compound. I. Watts. (more info) 1. Separate or apart from others; single; distinct. Bacon. And
• SOMEWHAT
  1. More or less; a certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something. These salts have somewhat of a nitrous taste. Grew. Somewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost.
• BEFORETIME
  Formerly; aforetime. dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. 2 Kings xiii. 5.
• ARTICLE
  One of the three words, a, an, the, used before nouns to limit or define their application. A is called the indefinite article, the the definite article. (more info) 1. A distinct portion of an instrument, discourse, literary work, or any other
• AUTHORSHIP
  1. The quality or state of being an author; function or dignity of an author. 2. Source; origin; origination; as, the authorship of a book or review, or of an act, or state of affairs.
• INDEFINITE
  Too numerous or variable to make a particular enumeration important; -- said of the parts of a flower, and the like. Also, indeterminate. Indefinite article , the word a or an, used with nouns to denote any one of a common or general class. --
• SINGULARITY
  1. The quality or state of being singular; some character or quality of a thing by which it is distinguished from all, or from most, others; peculiarity. Pliny addeth this singularity to that soil, that the second year the very falling down of
• BEFOREHAND
  1. In a state of anticipation ore preoccupation; in advance; -- often followed by with. Agricola . . . resolves to be beforehand with the danger. Milton. The last cited author has been beforehand with me. Addison. 2. By way of preparation,
• ARTICLED
  Bound by articles; apprenticed; as, an articled clerk.
• NUMBERLESS
  Innumerable; countless.
• INDEFINITENESS
  The quality of being indefinite.
• ENGLISHRY
  1. The state or privilege of being an Englishman. Cowell. 2. A body of English or people of English descent; -- commonly applied to English people in Ireland. A general massacre of the Englishry. Macaulay.
• NUMBER
  The distinction of objects, as one, or more than one (in some languages, as one, or two, or more than two), expressed by a difference in the form of a word; thus, the singular number and the plural number are the names of the forms of
• NUMBERS
  of Number. The fourth book of the Pentateuch, containing the census of the Hebrews.
• ENGLISHABLE
  Capable of being translated into, or expressed in, English.
• NUMBERER
  One who numbers.
• ENGLISHMAN
  A native or a naturalized inhabitant of England.
• INDEFINITELY
  In an indefinite manner or degree; without any settled limitation; vaguely; not with certainty or exactness; as, to use a word indefinitely. If the world be indefinitely extended, that is, so far as no human intellect can fancy any bound of it. Ray.
• THEREBEFORE; THEREBIFORN
  Before that time; beforehand. Many a winter therebiforn. Chaucer.
• OUTNUMBER
  To exceed in number.
• ANTENUMBER
  A number that precedes another. Bacon.
• MISNUMBER
  To number wrongly.
• HEREINBEFORE
  In the preceding part of this .
• INDO-ENGLISH
  Of or relating to the English who are born or reside in India; Anglo-Indian.