Definition of "an"

Form of a (all article senses).

1. Used before a vowel sound.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     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.

   • 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.

     1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point‎, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, page 12

2. (formal) Used before /h/ in an unstressed syllable.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1953, Mao Tse-tung, “Mao Tse-tung's Tribute to Stalin”, in Current Soviet Policies‎, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, page 254

   • 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.

     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 December 2015

3. (now quite rare) Used before one and words with initial u, eu when pronounced /ju/.  quotations

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Numbers 24:8

   • 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.

     , John Mackay Wilson, Wilson's Tales of the Borders; Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative‎, page 84

   • After the case had been reported in the newspapers, Mrs. Gracindo de Souza, wife of a member of the local stock exchange, told police that she and her daughter had been driving down Alameda Sao Boaventura when they had seen an UFO hovering over the clearing where the bodies were later discovered.

     1967, Brad Steiger, Joan Whritenour, “Someone Up There May Not Like Us”, in Flying Saucers Are Hostile‎, Tandem Publishing, published 1975, page 13

   • An Uighur boy steps forward, carrying an instrument, a rahab. He sings a ballad: “We follow Chairman Mao.”

     1979, Jan Myrdal, translated by Ann Hening, The Silk Road: A Journey from the High Pamirs and Ili through Sinkiang and Kansu‎, New York: Pantheon Books, page 160

   • 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.

     2010 March 22, Paul Taylor, “Greece Debates Revive Old European Fears and Resentments”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 2010-04-03, Inside Europe

   • Second, according to an United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees in the Near East report (UNRWA, 2006) the initial design and drawings used by construction companies can be improved.

     2011, CaseBase: Case Studies in Global Business‎, page 144

   • What does a small house, a lighthouse, a candy shop and toys have to do with an utility company? Find out this Friday November 22nd, 2019.

     2019 November 21, “Don't miss the 'Mini Town' Christmas Lighting event”, in Aruba Today‎, page A16

4. (nonstandard) Used before /h/ in a stressed syllable.  quotations

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalms 40:1–2

   • 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.

     1693, Robert Morden, “Of China”, in Geography Rectified; or a Description of the World‎, 3rd edition, page 441

5. (nonstandard, Britain, West Country) Used before all consonants.

(nonstandard, Britain, West Country) one

(archaic) If  quotations

(archaic) So long as.

(archaic) As if; as though.  quotations

The first letter of the Georgian alphabet, ა (Mkhedruli), Ⴀ (Asomtavruli) or ⴀ (Nuskhuri).  examples

In each; to or for each; per.  examples