an
Language: English
Part of speech: article
Pronunciation: note: stressed form
ipa: /ˈæn/
ipa: [ˈæn]
ipa: [ˈan]
ipa: [ˈeən]
ipa: [ˈɛən]
ipa: [ˈɛən]
ipa: [ˈæ(ː)n]
ipa: /ən/
rhymes: -æn
homophone: and (unstressed form)
homophone: in (unstressed form)
Etymology: From Middle English an, from Old English ān (“a, an”, literally “one”). More at one.
Senses: examples: text: I'll be there in half an hour.
text: 'E's staying at an 'otel. (compare He's staying at a hotel.)
text: Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: I was catapulted without preparation into the most difficult job any mortal man can hold. My duties would not wait a week, or a day, or even an hour.
ref: 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12:
glosses: Form of a (all article senses).
Used before a vowel sound.
examples: text: 1 I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined vnto me, and heard my crie.
2 He brought me vp also out of an horrible pit, out of the mirie clay, and set my feete vpon a rock, and established my goings.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 40:1–2:
text: The Province of Nanking, by the Tartars called Kiangnan, is the ſecond in honour, in magnitude and fertility in all China : It is divided into 14 great Territories, having Cities and Towns an hundred and ten; Nanking, or Kiangning being the Metropolis; a City, that if ſhe did not exceed moſt Cities on the Earth in bigneſs and beauty, yet ſhe was inferior to few, for her Pagodes, her Temples, her Porcelane Towers, her Palaces and Triumphal Arches. Fungiang, Sucheu, Sunkiang, Leucheu, Hoaigan, Ganking, Ningue, Hoeicheu, are alſo eminent places, and of great Note and Trade.
ref: 1693, Robert Morden, “Of China”, in Geography Rectified; or a Description of the World, 3rd edition, →OCLC, page 441:
text: Following the doctrine of Lenin and Stalin, relying on the support of the great Soviet state and all the revolutionary forces of all countries, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people gained an historic victory a few years ago.
ref: 1953, Mao Tse-tung, “Mao Tse-tung's Tribute to Stalin”, in Current Soviet Policies, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, →ISSN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 254:
text: We have agreed on joint ventures in space. We have agreed on ways of working together to protect the environment, to advance health, to cooperate in science and technology. We have agreed on means of preventing incidents at sea. We have established a commission to expand trade between our two nations. Most important, we have taken an historic first step in the limitation of nuclear strategic arms.
ref: 1972 May 28, 3:30 from the start, in President Nixon addresses the Soviet People live from the Kremlin, spoken by Richard Nixon, archived from the original on 22 Dec 2015:
text: Well yesterday was an historic day. Uh, there was last minute testimony scheduled in the January 6th committee from a former aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
ref: 2022 June 29, David Pakman, 0:00 from the start, in Trump Assaulted Secret Service Agent, Smeared Ketchup on Wall, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2022:
text: This is an historic honor which matches the weight of our times.
ref: 2025 May 26, Mark Carney, 0:21 from the start, in King Charles in Canada: Why this isn't just any royal visit, CBC:
glosses: Form of a (all article senses).
Used before /h/ in a stressed or unstressed syllable.
examples: text: God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 24:8:
text: My hopes, from my earliest years, have been hopes of celebrity as a writer- not of wealth, or of influence, or of accomplishing any of the thousand aims which furnish the great bulk of mankind with motives. You will laugh at me. There is something so emphatically shadowy and unreal in the object of this ambition, that even the full attainment of its provokes a smile. For who does not know
'How vain that second life in others' breath,
The estate which wits inherit after death!'
And what can be more fraught with the ludicrous than an union of this shadowy ambition with mediocre parts and attainments! But I digress.
ref: (Can we date this quote?), John Mackay Wilson, Wilson's Tales of the Borders; Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative, →OCLC, page 84:
text: President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is open to an European monetary fund but would want it to raise money cheaply on capital markets and lend it to needy euro-zone countries before they faced possible default.
ref: 2010 March 22, Paul Taylor, “Greece Debates Revive Old European Fears and Resentments”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Apr 2010, Inside Europe:
text: In an unanimous vote on Monday, the city’s school board approved removing the name of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from Forrest Hill Academy and calling the alternative school the Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy.
ref: 2021 April 13, Neil Vigdor, “Hank Aaron’s Name Will Replace a Confederate General’s on an Atlanta School”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2021, U.S.:
text: Having been given seven full days, Jack Smith took exactly one day to file a forty-page response in opposition, to the Supreme Court, making the argument that there was no reason for the Supreme Court to hear Donald Trump's appeal of an unanimous opinion by the second most important court in the country, the Washington, D.C., Federal Court of Appeals, which supported the trial judge's ruling that there is no such thing as immunity from criminal prosecution for former presidents.
ref: 2024 February 14, Lawrence O'Donnell, 0:29 from the start, in Lawrence: Jack Smith asks SCOTUS to move fast on Trump. Nixon case is proof they can., MSNBC, archived from the original on 15 Feb 2024:
glosses: Form of a (all article senses).
Used before one and words with initial ⟨u⟩, ⟨eu⟩ when pronounced /ju/.
glosses: Form of a (all article senses).
Used before all consonants.
Derived terms: another