WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : A (# emph. #).
Definition : 1. Etym: [Shortened form of an. AS. an one. See One.]

Defn: An adjective, commonly called the indefinite article, and signifying one or any, but less emphatically.

Defn: "At a birth"; "In a word"; "At a blow". Shak.

Note: It is placed before nouns of the singular number denoting an individual object, or a quality individualized, before collective nouns, and also before plural nouns when the adjective few or the phrase great many or good many is interposed; as, a dog, a house, a man; a color; a sweetness; a hundred, a fleet, a regiment; a few persons, a great many days. It is used for an, for the sake of euphony, before words beginning with a consonant sound [for exception of certain words beginning with h, see An]; as, a table, a woman, a year, a unit, a eulogy, a ewe, a oneness, such a one, etc. Formally an was used both before vowels and consonants.

2. Etym: [Originally the preposition a (an, on).]

Defn: In each; to or for each; as, "twenty leagues a day", "a hundred pounds a year", "a dollar a yard", etc.


Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : A
Part of Speech : prep.
Etymology : [Abbreviated form of an (AS. on). See On.]
Definition : 1. In; on; at; by. [Obs.] "A God's name." "Torn a pieces." "Stand a tiptoe." "A Sundays" Shak. "Wit that men have now a days." Chaucer. "Set them a work." Robynson (More's Utopia)

2. In process of; in the act of; into; to; -- used with verbal substantives in -ing which begin with a consonant. This is a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging. "Jacob, when he was a dying" Heb. xi. 21. "We'll a birding together." " It was a doing." Shak. "He burst out a laughing." Macaulay. The hyphen may be used to connect a with the verbal substantive (as, a-hunting, a-building) or the words may be written separately. This form of expression is now for the most part obsolete, the a being omitted and the verbal substantive treated as a participle.


Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : A.
Etymology : [From AS. of off, from. See Of.]
Definition : Defn: Of. [Obs.] "The name of John a Gaunt." "What time a day is it " Shak. "It's six a clock." B. Jonson.


Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : A.
Definition : Defn: A barbarous corruption of have, of he, and sometimes of it and of they. "So would I a done" "A brushes his hat." Shak.


Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : A.
Definition : Defn: An expletive, void of sense, to fill up the meter A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a. Shak.


Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913