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Definition of "a" [a]

  • The first letter of the modern English alphabet. (noun)
  • Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter a. (noun)
  • The first in a series. (noun)
  • Something shaped like the letter A. (noun)
  • The best or highest in quality or rank: grade A milk. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "a" in a sentence
  • "Not that it makes it any better, but I'm pretty sure the 'big a*& cake' is a riff on a chain a prominent rapper wore, with a medallion that had ' big a#$ chain'."
  • "So, having argued for a second root for sit that was *es- (which they relate to Sanskrit a:s-, Avestan a:s-/a:h-, Hittite eš-, and Greek he:stai 'sits'), they then suggest a connection to Hurrian ašš- and Urartean aš-, which then suggests a connection to Proto-Uralic *ase- (there should be an acute accent over the s)"
  • "For this reason the tube, TT ', is provided with a notch opposite the piece _a m l_, and the two arms, _a_ and _m_, of the latter are shaped like a V, as may be seen in part in the plan in Fig. 2."