| a1 |
the first letter of the English alphabet. [1/3 definitions] |
| Aaron |
according to the Old Testament, the older brother of Moses and the first high priest of the Hebrew nation. |
| aborigine |
one of the first people to live in an area. |
| Abraham |
according to the Old Testament, the first of the postdiluvian patriarchs, father of Isaac, and ancestor of the Hebrews. |
| accost |
to confront and speak first to, often aggressively. [1/2 definitions] |
| acronym |
a word formed by putting together the first letters or parts of a series of words in a longer phrase. |
| acrostic |
a sequence of written lines in which particular letters, usu. the first letter of every line, form an independent word or phrase. [1/2 definitions] |
| Adam |
according to the Old Testament, the name of the first man, created by God from dust, and the progenitor of the human race. |
| African National Congress |
South African political party founded in 1912, whose struggle to establish majority rule and eliminate apartheid led to the establishment in 1994 of South Africa's first multi-racial, democratically-elected government. |
| aftershock |
a small earthquake that follows a larger one. Aftershocks start at or near the same place where the first earthquake started. There are often several aftershocks after the first earthquake. |
| Alan Shepard |
U.S. astronaut, who was the first American to journey into space (b.1923--d.1998). |
| aleph |
the name of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. |
| Algonkian |
of, relating to, or designating the later of two geological periods of the Precambrian Era, from approximately 2.5 billion to 600 million years ago, when the first evidence of life appeared; Late Precambrian; Proterozoic. [1/4 definitions] |
| alpha |
the name of the first letter of the Greek alphabet. |
| alpha and omega |
the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. [2 definitions] |
| alternate |
following each other in turns, first one then the other. [1/7 definitions] |
| Althea Gibson |
U.S. professional tennis player, who was the first African-American woman to win all the major world singles tennis titles (b.1927--d.2003). |
| am |
first person present sing. of be. |
| ANC |
abbreviation of "African National Congress," South African political party founded in 1912, whose struggle to establish majority rule and eliminate apartheid led to the establishment in 1994 of South Africa's first multi-racial, democratically-elected government. |
| antecedent |
the word or group of words that a pronoun refers to. In "The girls ate their dessert first," "girls" is the antecedent of "their." |
| A one |
superior; first-rate; first-class. |