an
UK [ˈæn] · US [ˈeən] article, numeral, conjunction, noun, preposition
Forms ans
- article Used before a vowel sound. “I'll be there in half an hour.”
- article Used before /h/ in a stressed or unstressed syllable.
- article (now quite rare) Used before one and words with initial ⟨u⟩, ⟨eu⟩ when pronounced /ju/.
- article (nonstandard, UK, West Country) Used before all consonants.
- numeral (nonstandard, UK, West Country) one
- conjunction (archaic) If
- conjunction (archaic) So long as. “An it harm none, do what ye will.”
- conjunction (archaic) As if; as though. “At length did cross an Albatross, Thorough the Fog it came; And an it were a Christian Soul, We hail'd it in God's Name.”
- noun The first letter of the Georgian alphabet, ა (Mkhedruli), Ⴀ (Asomtavruli) or ⴀ (Nuskhuri).
- preposition In each; to or for each; per. “I was only going twenty miles an hour.”
- noun (military, US) A set of sizes for screw threads agreed upon and jointly used by the United States Army and Navy.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English an, from Old English ān (“a, an”, literally “one”). More at one.
From Middle English an (“and, if”). Doublet of and.
Borrowed from Georgian ან (an).
From the Old English an, on (preposition).
Webster’s 1913
- This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the 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 (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every.
- conjunction If; --a word used by old English authors. Shak.
Etymology [AS. an one, the same word as the numeral. See One, and cf. A.]
Etymology [Shortened fr. and, OE. an., and, sometimes and if, in introducing conditional clauses, like Icel. enda if, the same word as and. Prob. and was originally pleonastic before the conditional clause.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “an”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details