A

A A ([.a] emph. [=a]). 1. [Shortened form of an. AS. [=a]n one. See {One}.] An adjective, commonly called the indefinite article, and signifying one or any, but less emphatically. ``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. [1913 Webster]

2. [Originally the preposition a (an, on).] In each; to or for each; as, ``twenty leagues a day'', ``a hundred pounds a year'', ``a dollar a yard'', etc. [1913 Webster]