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 ක්ෂෝභය, n. firmness, සවිය; post to which an elephant is tied, elephant post, ඇත්කණුව.

අ කාරය, n. that which makes අ, viz. the letter අ.

අ ධන, අ ධනි, a. debitute of riches. සම්පත් නැති, impecunious, penniless, දිළිඳු.

අ ධම්මික, a. P. of අධාර්‍මමික, which see.

අ පොහොසත්, a. not rich, poor, දිළිඳු; incompetent, incapable, බලය මදි, දක්ෂ මදි.

අ පොහොසත්කම, n. lack of riches, ධනනැති කම, poverty, දිළිඳුකම; incompetency &c., inability, බලනැතිකම &c.

අ විජ්‍ජාව, n. P. of අවිද්‍යාව. which see.

අ සත් දම, n. E. of අ සද්ධර්‍මය, which see.

අංජනාවතී, n. female of the elephant which supports the north-east corner of the world.

අංස මර්‍දදකය, n. side-painer, viz. in native pathology, that one of the eighty morbid airs which pains the side.

අක්, a tree the fruit of which is used in medicine,Terminalia belerica, බුළු.

අක් මල, n. E. of අක්ෂ මාලාව, which see.

අක්මන, n. E. of ආක්‍රමණය, which see.

අකිත්, jasmine, Jasminum Sambac, පිච්ච; Trichodesma zeylanicum.