In this article, you’ll discover a wide range of items, animals, and concepts that all start with the letter “A”.
- Apple- A fruit with red, green, or yellow skin and sweet to tart flesh.
- Aardvark- A nocturnal mammal that has a long snout and feeds on ants and termites.
- Abyss- A deep or seemingly bottomless chasm.
- Accordion- A musical instrument with pleated bellows and a series of keys, played by compressing and expanding the bellows.
- Acorn- The nut of the oak tree, typically enclosed in a tough, leathery shell.
- Acrobat- A performer who performs gymnastic feats involving agility and balance.
- Albatross- A very large oceanic bird known for its long wingspan.
- Algae- Simple non-flowering plants of a large group that includes the seaweeds and many single-celled forms.
- Almond- A type of nut obtained from the almond tree; also refers to the tree itself.
- Amber- A hard, translucent fossilized resin, usually yellowish in color.
- Amethyst- A precious stone consisting of a violet or purple variety of quartz.
- Anchor- A heavy device attached to a ship by a cable and dropped into the water to hold it in a particular place.
- Angel- A spiritual being believed to act as an attendant, agent, or messenger of God.
- Angelfish- A brightly colored tropical fish, often kept in aquariums.
- Anvil- A heavy iron block typically used in metalworking.
- Apartment- A self-contained unit in a building, comprising of rooms and located on a single floor.
- Aphid- Small sap-sucking insects that are usually green but also found in other colors.
- Apricot- A small, soft, round fruit with yellow-orange flesh and a stone.
- Arch- A curved symmetrical structure spanning an opening, typically supporting the weight of a bridge or building.
- Armor- Protective clothing intended to shield the wearer from physical harm, particularly in battle.
- Arrow- A shafted projectile shot with a bow.
- Artichoke- A plant of the thistle family with flower heads that are edible when immature.
- Aspen- A type of tree belonging to the poplar family, known for its trembling leaves.
- Asteroid- A small rocky body orbiting the sun, found mainly in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
- Auburn- A reddish-brown color, typically describing hair.
- Avocado- A creamy-textured fruit with a fatty flesh, often used in salads and dips like guacamole.
- Axe- A tool used for cutting, splitting, chipping, and piercing, consisting of a heavy blade attached to a handle.
- Azalea- A colorful flowering shrub part of the rhododendron family.
- Azure- A bright blue color, resembling the color of the sky on a clear day.
- Accordionist- A person who plays the accordion.
- Aerodynamics- The study of the properties of moving air, and the interaction between the air and solid bodies moving through it.
- Aerosol- A suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in air or another gas.
- Agate- A semi-precious stone characterized by its fineness of grain and brightness of color.
- Ageism- Prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age.
- Agenda- A list of items to be discussed at a formal meeting.
- Agent- A person who acts on behalf of another person or group.
- Aglet- A small sheath, typically made of plastic or metal, placed on the end of a shoelace.
- Agony- Extreme physical or mental suffering.
- Aileron- A hinged surface in the trailing edge of an airplane wing, used to control lateral balance.
- Ailment- An illness, typically a minor one.
- Airbrush- A small, air-operated tool that sprays various media, most often paint or ink.
- Aircraft- A vehicle capable of atmospheric flight due to interaction with the air.
- Aisle- A passageway between rows of seats in a building, such as a church or theater, an airplane, or a train.
- Alarm- A device that makes a loud sound as a warning or signal.
- Albino- An organism lacking normal pigmentation, with pale skin, light hair, pinkish eyes, and visual abnormalities.
- Album- A collection of recordings or photographs housed together in one format.
- Alcohol- An intoxicating ingredient found in drinks such as beer, wine, and spirits.
- Alcove- A small recessed section of a room or garden.
- Alder- A type of tree belonging to the birch family, known for its fast growth and deciduous nature.
- Algorithm- A process or set of rules followed in calculations or problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.
- Alias- A false or assumed identity.
- Alibi- A claim or evidence that one was elsewhere when an act, typically a criminal one, is alleged to have taken place.
- Alien- Belonging to a foreign country or nation; or a creature from outer space.
- Alimony- A husband’s or wife’s court-ordered provision for a spouse after separation or divorce.
- Allergy- A damaging immune response by the body to a substance, especially a particular food, pollen, fur, or dust.
- Alley- A narrow passageway between or behind buildings.
- Alligator- A large amphibious reptile with a long snout and powerful tail, native to the US and China.
- Alloy- A metal made by combining two or more metallic elements, especially to give greater strength or resistance to corrosion.
- Allure- The quality of being powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating.
- Almanac- An annual publication listing a set of events forthcoming in the next year.
- Almond- An oval nutlike seed (kernel) of the almond tree, growing in a woody shell, often eaten as food.
- Alms- Money or food given to poor people.
- Alpaca- A domesticated species of South American camelid resembling a small llama, known for its soft wool.
- Alphabet- A set of letters or symbols in a fixed order, used to represent the basic sounds of a language.
- Altar- A table or flat-topped block used as the focus for a religious ritual, especially for making sacrifices or offerings to a deity.
- Alto- A voice, instrument, or part singing or playing in the lowest range of the treble, or high range.
- Altruism- The belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.
- Alum- A type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double sulfate salt of aluminum.
- Aluminum- A silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic metal, the most abundant in the earth’s crust but found only in combination.
- Amalgam- A mixture or blend; in dentistry, an alloy of mercury with another metal used for dental fillings.
- Amaretto- A sweet Italian liqueur that originally derived its flavor from the base of apricot pits or almonds.
- Amateur- A person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid basis.
- Ambassador- An accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.
- Amberjack- A large predatory fish of warm seas, with a yellowish to brownish or bluish color, part of the jack family.
- Ambience- The character and atmosphere of a place.
- Ambiguity- Uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language.
- Amenity- A desirable or useful feature or facility of a building or place.
- Amethyst- A transparent purple variety of quartz used as a gemstone.
- Amino acid- A simple organic compound containing both a carboxyl (—COOH) and an amino (—NH2) group, building blocks of proteins.
- Ammonia- A colorless gas with a characteristic pungent smell, used as an industrial chemical.
- Amnesia- A partial or total loss of memory.
- Amoeba- A single-celled animal that catches food and moves about by extending fingerlike projections of protoplasm.
- Amphibian- Cold-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Amphibia, such as a frog or salamander, typically living on land but breeding in water.
- Amplifier- An electronic device for increasing the amplitude of electrical signals, used chiefly in sound reproduction.
- Amulet- An ornament or small piece of jewelry thought to give protection against evil, danger, or disease.
- Anagram- A word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another, such as cinema, formed from iceman.
- Analgesic- (chiefly of a drug) acting to relieve pain.
- Analog- Relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage.
- Anarchy- A state of disorder due to the absence or nonrecognition of authority or other controlling systems.
- Anatomy- The branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms.
- Ancestor- A person from whom one is descended, especially if more remote than a grandparent; a forebear.
- Anchor- A heavy object attached to a cable or chain and used to moor a vessel to the sea bottom.
- Ancient- Belonging to the very distant past and no longer in existence.
- Andesite- A dark, fine-grained, brown or grayish volcanic rock that is intermediate in composition between rhyolite and basalt.
- Anecdote- A short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
- Anemone- A plant of the buttercup family, typically bearing brightly colored flowers.
- Anesthesia- Insensitivity to pain, especially as artificially induced by the administration of gases or the injection of drugs before surgical operations.
- Aneurysm- An excessive localized enlargement of an artery caused by a weakening of the artery wall.
- Angelica- A tall aromatic plant of the parsley family, with large leaves and yellowish-green flowers.
- Angler- A person who fishes with a rod and line.