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 කිටනතාව, n. destitution, poverty (often voluntary), &c.; කිසිත් නැතිකුම, &c.

අ කුසල, n. demerit; misfortune or affliction. as the result of demerit in a former existence, අවාසනාව.

අ ඛණ්ඩනය, n. non-violation, නොකැඩීම, entireness, completeness, සම්පූර්‍ණකම; time or continuance, කාලය or පැවතීම.

අ ඛාද්‍ය a. not to be eaten; not edible; කෑමට සුදුසු.

අ ඝන, a. not dense, thin, tenuous, rare, ඝන නැති, තුනී.

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

අ චලකරනවා, v. t. to render motionless or stable; still, quieten, නිශ්චල කරනවා.

අ ජනිත, a. unborn, unbegotten, unproduced, නූපන්, අටනොගත්.

අ දෘඪ, a. not hard: soft, tender, plastic, තද නැති, මෙළෙක්.

අ දේව දෘෂ්ටිය, n. atheism, disbelief in the existence of God or any god.

අ ධෛර්‍ය්‍යකරනවා, v. t. to discourage, unman, හිත පසුබටකරනවා, discountenance. E. S.

අ පශ්චාත්තාපය, n. impenitence, පශ්චාත්තාප නැති කම.

අ ප්‍ර ශාන්ත, a. unquiet, discontented, annoyed, ශාන්තිනැති, අසතුටු, හිරිහැරවූ.