an: Meaning and Definition of

an

1. the form ofbefore an initial vowel sound (an arch; an honor) and sometimes, esp. in British English, before an initial unstressed syllable beginning with a silent or weakly pronounced h: an historian.

an

1. and.
2. if.

An

1. the Sumerian god of heaven: the counterpart of the Akkadian Anu.

an-

1. a prefix occurring before stems beginning with a vowel or h in loanwords from Greek, where it means “not,” “without,” “lacking” (anarchy; anecdote); used in the formation of compound words: anelectric.

an-

1. var. ofbefore n: announce.

an-

1. var. ofbefore a vowel: anion.

-an

1. a suffix occurring originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nouns denoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan), and now productively forming English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern. Attached to geographic names, it denotes provenance or membership (American; Chicagoan; Tibetan), the latter sense now extended to membership in social classes, religious denominations, etc., in adjectives formed from various kinds of noun bases (Episcopalian; pedestrian; Puritan; Republican) and membership in zoological taxa (acanthocephalan; crustacean). Attached to personal names, it has the additional senses “contemporary with” (Elizabethan; Jacobean) or “proponent of ” (Hegelian; Freudian) the person specified by the noun base. The suffixand its variantalso occurs in a set of personal nouns, mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works with the referent of the base noun (comedian; grammarian; historian; theologian); this usage is esp. productive with nouns ending in(electrician; logician; technician). Seefor relative distribution with that suffix. Cf. -enne, -ean, -arian, -ician.

AN

1. Anglo-Norman.

An

1. actinon.

an.

1. in the year.

A.N.

1. Anglo-Norman.
2. Associate in Nursing.