අ, n. The first letter of the Alphabet. It varies bightly in pronunciation, depending sometimes on the meaning or derivation and sometimes on the consonants with which it is combined. It is (1) the clear, distinct sound obtained by shortening ආ ah; (2) the sound of a in negative or miracle. In initial syllables the sound is generally the first of these; the second arises from the dropping of the voice in the unaccented syllables. It is written only when it is the initial letter of a word, but is pronounced after every consonant to which no other vowel is attached, or where it is not suppressed by the sign ්, as කරනවා, karanavā, the final vowel අ, which is long, alone being written;කරන් karan, the vowel අ after න being suppressed by the sign ්.

අ කාරක, a. inoperative, quiescent. See අකර්‍මක.

අ කුත්සිත, a. uncensured, unreproached, නිවරදි, not despised, respectable, නම්බුකාර.

අ ගුණ වාදි, a. censorious, uncharitable, defamatory, යමෙකුගේ අගුණ කියන.

අ ගුණ වාදිතාව, n. censoriousness, &c., අවලාදගතිය.

අ ඝෝෂ, a. without sound, noiseless; gram. quiescent, mute, silent, නිශ්ශබ්ද.

අ චල, a. motionless, quiescent, still, steady, stable, නිශ්චල, නොසෙල්වෙන.

අ චලය, n. quiescence, නිශ්චලය (see අචලතාව); mountain, කන්ද.

අ දත්තාදානය, n. (අදත්ත not given, අදානය taking), taking what is not given, viz. larceny, theft, හොරකම.

අ නිභූතමාන, අ නිහතමනී, a. unbending, නොනැ ‍මෙන, rigid, තද, uncondescending, යටත් පහත් නොවන, haughty, ආඩම්බර.

අ නියම්, a. indeterminate, contingent, indefinite, vague, anomalous, eccentric.

අ නීච, a. not vile, decent, reputable, respectable, නීච නැති.

අ පන්නකය, n. the first descent or incarnation of Buddha.

අ වාතිතික, a. incommunicative, reticent, reserved. E. S.

අ විවෘත, a. unopened, ඇරී නැති; unexpanded, පිපීනැති, undeveloped, unmanifest, ප්‍රකාශ නැති; bot. indehiscent, ඉබේම නොඇරෙන.