Word.ws English Dictionary

a-

/ə/UK/eɪ/

a- prefix: forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, out. Also the alternative form of y-.

Prefix (1)

a-

  1. (idiomatic) Forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, out.
    • arise, await
  2. (idiomatic) Forming verbs with the sense of intensified action.
    • abide, amaze

Prefix (2)

a-

  1. (idiomatic, rare) In, on, at; used to show a state, condition, or manner. Also passing into sense 2.
    • aglow, apace, afire, aboil, a-bling, abluster
  2. (idiomatic) In, into. Also passing into sense 5.
    • asunder
  3. In the direction of, or toward.
    • astern, abeam
  4. (archaic, dialectal) At such a time.
    • Come a-morning we are going hunting.
  5. (archaic, dialectal) In the act or process of. Used in some dialects before a present participle.
    • hits a-poppin
    • doins a-transpirin

Prefix (3)

a-

  1. (Devon) Used to form the past participle of a verb.
    • I have a-gone.
    • I have a-seen a bird.

Prefix (4)

a-

  1. (idiomatic) Forming words with the sense of wholly, or utterly out.
    • abash

Prefix (5)

a-

  1. Not, without, opposite of.
    • amoral, asymmetry, atheism, asexual, acyclic, atypical
    • When invited to believe in the Chimaera, the horse-centaurs, or the winged horse Pegasus, all of them straightforward Pelasgian cult-symbols, a philosopher felt bound to reject them as a-zoölogical improbabilities ….1948 (revised 1952), Robert Graves, The White Goddess, Faber & Faber 1999, page 7
    Synonyms:
    an-, dys-, i-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, mal-, non-, un-

Prefix (6)

a-

  1. (idiomatic) Towards; Used to indicate direction, reduction to, increase to, change into, or motion.
    • ascend, aspire, amass, abandon, avenue

Prefix (7)

a-

  1. (idiomatic) Away from.
    • avert, aperient, abridge, assoil, assoilzie

Prefix (8)

a-

  1. (idiomatic) Of, from.
    • anew, afresh, athirst

Prefix (9)

a-

  1. (Chester) Used as a prefix to verbs in the sense of remaining in the same condition. Actively doing something.
    • a-be, a-going
    • Let that choilt a-be, wilt ta.

Also used as

a- is also the alternative form of y-.

a- is also the alternative form of -a.

Examples of a- in a sentence

  • If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.circa 1970, bumper sticker
  • If aroused outside the proper outlet of marriage, [female lust] could range out of control, turning its possessor into an a-feminine monster: that is what happened to fallen women.2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 191:

Synonyms of a-

Forms of a-

alternative formi-

Origin of a-

From Middle English a- (“up, out, away”), from Old English ā-, originally *ar-, *or-, from Proto-West Germanic *uʀ-, from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out-”), from Proto-Indo-European *uds- (“up, out”). Cognate with Old Saxon a-, German er-.

From Middle English a- (“on”), derived from unstressed Middle English an (“on”), from Old English an (“on”). See a (preposition, on, to, in, etc.)

From Middle English a-, a variant form of y-, from Old English ġe-, from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“with”).

Phrases with a-

Questions about a-

What does a- mean?
A- means forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, out.
How do you use a- in a sentence?
If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.
What part of speech is a-?
A- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce a-?
A- is pronounced /ə/.

Words near a- in the dictionary

  1. A*s
  2. A+
  3. A+'s
  4. A++
  5. A++s
  6. a-
  7. a- -ing
  8. A-1
  9. A-106
  10. A-106s
  11. A-109

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: a- (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-a-(1).ogg.

Cite this entry: “a-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/a-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.