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an

Pronunciation: (un; when stressed an), [key]indefinite article.
the form of a before an initial vowel sound (an arch; an honor) and sometimes, esp. in British English, before an initial unstressed syllable beginning with a silent or weakly pronounced h: an historian.

an

Pronunciation: (un; when stressed an), [key]
—conj.
1. Pron. Spelling.and.
2. Archaic.if. Also,an','n,'n'.

An

Pronunciation: (än), [key]
—n.
the Sumerian god of heaven: the counterpart of the Akkadian Anu.

an-

a prefix occurring before stems beginning with a vowel or h in loanwords from Greek, where it means “not,” “without,” “lacking” (anarchy; anecdote); used in the formation of compound words: anelectric. Also, before a consonant,a-.

an-

var. of ad- before n: announce.

an-

var. of ana- before a vowel: anion.

-an

a suffix occurring originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nouns denoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan), and now productively forming English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern. Attached to geographic names, it denotes provenance or membership (American; Chicagoan; Tibetan), the latter sense now extended to membership in social classes, religious denominations, etc., in adjectives formed from various kinds of noun bases (Episcopalian; pedestrian; Puritan; Republican) and membership in zoological taxa (acanthocephalan; crustacean). Attached to personal names, it has the additional senses “contemporary with” (Elizabethan; Jacobean) or “proponent of ” (Hegelian; Freudian) the person specified by the noun base. The suffix -an, and its variant -ian, also occurs in a set of personal nouns, mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works with the referent of the base noun (comedian; grammarian; historian; theologian); this usage is esp. productive with nouns ending in -ic (electrician; logician; technician). See -ian for relative distribution with that suffix. Cf. -enne, -ean, -arian, -ician.