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 ක්ෂම, a. not forbearing, impatient, නොඉව සිලි; hasty, ඉක්මන්; incompetent, අසමර්‍ථ.

අ ක්‍රමතාව, n. irregularity, anomalousness, &c., ක්‍රමනැතිකම.

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

අ ඝනතාව, n. thinness, tenuity, rarity, ඝන නැතිකම.

අ තුල්‍ය ශබ්ද වාචක, a. gram. imparisyllabic. E. S.

අ තුල්‍යතාව, n. inequality, disparity, disproportion, matchlessness, අසමකම, අසමානකම.

අ නාථ පිණ්ඩක, අ නාථ පිණ්ඩික, a. giving alms to the destitute, charitable, දන්දෙන; ep. of a B. noble who was a contemporary of Buddha.

අ නිකායික a. unsectarian. undenominational. E. S.

අ ප්‍රසූතිකාව, n. (ප්‍රසූති child-bearing), barren woman, වඳස්ත්‍රී.

අ මාංස ධර්‍ම මතිකයා, n. one who holds the doctrine of non-flesh diet, vegetarian.

අ මාංස ධර්‍ම, අ මාංස භක්ෂක ධර්‍ම, a. vegetarian (doctrine).

අ මාංස භක්ෂක, අ මාංස භක්ෂණ, a. vegetarian (in practice).

අ මාංස භක්ෂකයා, n. one who abstains from eating flesh, vegetarian.

අ මාංස භක්ෂණ ධර්‍මය, n. doctrine or principle of vegetarianism.