| a |
| 1. art. One; any indefinite example of; used to denote a singular item of a group. | |
| There was a man here looking for you yesterday. | |
| 2. art. Used in conjunction with the adjectives score, dozen, hundred, thousand, and million, as a function word. | |
| I've seen it happen a hundred times. | |
| 3. art. One certain or particular; any single.Brown, Lesley, (2003) | |
| We've received an interesting letter from a Mrs. Miggins of London. | |
| 4. art. The same; one. | |
| We are of a mind on matters of morals. | |
| 5. art. Any, every; used before a noun which has become modified to limit its scope; also used with a negative to indicate not a single one.Lindberg, Christine A. (2007) | |
| A man who dies intestate leaves his children troubles and difficulties. | |
| He fell all that way, and hasn't a bump on his head? | |
| 6. art. Used before plural nouns modified by few, good many, couple, great many, etc. | |
| 7. art. Someone or something like; similar to; Used before a proper noun to create an example out of it. | |
| The center of the village was becoming a Times Square. | |
| 8. prep. (archaic) To do with position or direction; In, on, at, by, towards, onto. | |
| Stand a tiptoe. | |
| 9. prep. To do with separation; In, into. | |
| Torn a pieces. | |
| 10. prep. To do with time; Each, per, in, on, by. | |
| I brush my teeth twice a day. | |
| 11. prep. (obsolete) To do with method; In, with. | |
| 12. prep. (obsolete) To do with role or capacity; In. | |
| A God’s name. | |
| 13. prep. To do with status; In. | |
| King James Bible (II Chronicles 2:18) | |
| To set the people a worke. | |
| 14. prep. (archaic) To do with process, with a passive verb; In the course of, experiencing. | |
| 1964, Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin’ | |
| The times, they are a-changin'. | |
| 15. prep. (archaic) To do with an action, an active verb; Engaged in. | |
| 1611, King James Bible, Hebrews 11-21 | |
| Jacob, when he was a dying | |
| 16. prep. (archaic) To do with an action/movement; To, into. | |
| 17. v. (archaic, or slang) Have. | |
| I'd a come, if you'd a asked. | |
| 18. pron. (obsolete, outside, England, and Scotland dialects) He. | |
| 19. interj. A meaningless syllable; ah. | |
| 20. prep. (archaic, slang) Of. | |
| The name of John a Gaunt. | |
| 21. adv. (chiefly Scotland) All. | |
| 22. adj. (chiefly Scotland) All. | |
| distinguishing |
| 1. v. present participle of distinguish | |
| 2. adj. That serves to distinguish. | |
| 3. n. The act by which something is distinguished or told apart. | |
| distinguish |
| 1. v. To recognize someone or something as different from others based on its characteristics. | |
| 2. v. To see someone or something clearly or distinctly. | |
| 3. v. To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments. | |
| The soldier distinguished himself in combat and received a medal. | |
| 4. v. (transitive, obsolete) To make to differ. | |
| characteristic |
| 1. adj. Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing. | |
| 2. n. A distinguishing feature of a person or thing. | |
| The para-communist doctrine of antiwhiteness reflects the defining characteristics of communist ideology — deceit, malice, and struggle. | |
| 3. n. (mathematics) The integer part of a logarithm. | |
| 4. n. (nautical) The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.). | |
| 5. n. (algebra, field theory, ring theory) For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together | |
| The characteristic of a field, if non-zero, must be a prime number. | |
