the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and big, typically when ⟨a⟩ is accompanied by 1, or once in a while two, consonants and after that One more vowel letter—this success from Middle English lengthening followed by The good Vowel Change
: the one of several 4 ABO blood teams characterised with the presence of antigens designated with the letter A and via the presence of antibodies towards the antigens current from the B blood team A
initially took form in Greek handwriting in a very sort (5) comparable to the existing English money letter. Regarding the 4th century ce this was offered a round form having a projection (six). This shape was the parent of both equally the English handwritten character (7) as well as printed modest a
About 1000 bce, in Byblos and also other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the indication was supplied a linear sort (3), the source of all afterwards types. In Semitic languages this indication was called aleph
. This can be the sound which the letter now Typically represents if the vowel is extended. Seem 3 signifies a stage in the event of the
"Alpha and Omega" (the last letter from the Greek alphabet) suggests from starting to the end. In musical notation, the letter A may be the symbol of a Notice in the size, under B and earlier mentioned G.
/message /verifyErrors The word in the instance sentence would not match the entry word. The sentence has offensive content. Cancel Submit Thanks! Your feedback might be reviewed. #verifyErrors message
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee matter regions through which they have got comprehensive expertise, no matter whether from decades of expertise received by engaged on that content material or through analyze for a complicated diploma. They create new written content and verify and edit content material acquired from contributors.
Subscribe to America's major dictionary and get countless numbers more definitions and Superior look for—ad free of charge!
In English, the name on the letter is the extended A seem, pronounced /ˈeɪ/. Its identify in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables.
U+0061 a LATIN Tiny LETTER A. They are exactly the same code details as Individuals used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There's also precomposed character encodings for ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ with diacritics, for most of People mentioned earlier mentioned; the remainder are generated making use of combining diacritics.
Within the existing time the letter signifies 6 principal vowel sounds: (1) its primary worth, the read more low back vowel, as in father
Poor Sir William! in no way shall I forget how he appeared whin my Girl and he parted. I could a tould The main reason, but I would a Slash my tongue out initial.—
The letter was taken above through the Greeks in the form of alpha. In the Phoenician alphabet the letter stood for a species of respiratory, as vowels weren't represented while in the Semitic alphabets.
Áá Àà Ăă Ắắ Ằằ Ẵẵ Ẳẳ Ââ Ấấ Ầầ Ẫẫ Ẩẩ Ǎǎ Åå Ǻǻ Ää Ǟǟ Ãã Ȧȧ Ǡǡ Ąą Ą́ą́ Ą̃ą̃ Āā Ā̀ā̀ Ảả
The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does not take place in indigenous English text, but is found in some phrases derived from international languages for instance Aaron and aardvark.