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 ්.

අත්, n. pl. of අත fr. හස්ත: hands, arms. For other derivations and meanings, see අත.

අර්‍ථ නිරුක්තිය, n. explanation of the derivation and meaning, glossary: see අර්‍ථකථාව.

නිරුක්තය, නිරුක්තිය, n. gram. explanation, etymology, derivation, ශබ්ද ධාතු විස්තරය; glossary, ගැටපදවිවරණය.

පද·භජනය, පද·භජය, n. resolution of compound words or of sentences, derivation, etymology.

පද·සිඬිය, n. word-formation, derivation, etymology.

පද්‍යේත්පත්තිය, n. (පද්‍ය උත්ප:), derivation of words, etymology.

ව්‍යුත්පත්තිය, n. origin, derivation, etymology, උපත, පදසිද්ධිය; science, learning, ශාස්ත්‍රය, උගත්කම.

සමෝත්පන්න, a. (සම same, උත්පන්න), of the same derivation, paronyrnous.

සමෝත්පන්න·වාක්‍යය, n. a word of the same derivation, paronym, ප්‍රකෘතියෙන් සමාන වඩ නය.