alder |
any of several deciduous trees and shrubs of the birch family that grow in cool, damp regions. |
alderman |
a member of the lawmaking body of some cities and towns; councilman or councilwoman. |
ale |
a drink, made by fermenting malt, that is heavier and more bitter than beer. |
aleatory |
pertaining to or depending on luck, chance, or contingency. |
alee |
at or toward that side of a ship which is farthest from the source of wind. |
a leg to stand on |
a valid or convincing basis for a point of view. |
alehouse |
an establishment where ale is served; tavern. |
alembic |
a device, used in the past for distillation, whose main vessel has a beaked top. [2 definitions] |
aleph |
the name of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. |
alert |
keenly attentive or responsive; quick to perceive. [3 definitions] |
Aleut |
a member of a native people of the Aleutian Islands, or a descendant thereof; Aleutian. [2 definitions] |
Aleutian |
of or pertaining to the Aleutian Islands or their people, culture, or the like. [2 definitions] |
Aleutian Islands |
a chain of Alaskan islands that extends from the southwest coast toward Russia. |
alewife1 |
a small fish, related to the herring and resembling the shad, found in North America in the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. |
alewife2 |
a female alehouse keeper. |
Alexander Graham Bell |
U.S. inventor of the telephone (b.1847--d.1922). |
Alexander the Great |
the king of Macedonia in 336-323 B.C. and conqueror of an empire that included Persia, Egypt, and part of Greece (356-323 B.C.). |
Alexandria |
an Egyptian seaport on the Nile delta, founded by Alexander the Great. |
Alexandrian |
of or pertaining to Alexander the Great or the period of his reign. [2 definitions] |
alexandrine |
(sometimes cap.) in poetry, a twelve-syllable line with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, usu. with a clear pause after six syllables. [2 definitions] |
Alex Haley |
a U.S. author celebrated for his pulitzer prize-winning work of historical fiction, Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), a publication whose subsequent television broadcast adaptation spawned a national discussion about race and race relations (b.1921--d.1992). |