| anaphrodisiac | n. | agent or substance capable of reducing sexual desire | ||
| anastomosis | n. | opening between spaces not usually connected | ||
| anathema | n. | detested or hated thing or person, abomination; formal curse pronounced as part of excommunication | ||
| anent | prep. | in respect to, concerning | ||
| anfractuous | adj. | sinuous, circuitous | ||
| anhedonia | n. | inability to experience pleasure | ||
| animadversion | n. | criticism, esp. that implying censure | ||
| anisotropy | n. | difference in the value of a substance’s properties along different axes | ||
| ankylose | v. | to stiffen, join, or fuse together two originally distinct bones, or bone and another substance (such as a tooth) | ||
| annelid | n. | worm | ||
| anniversary | n. | celebration of the yearly recurrence of a past event | ||
| anodyne | adj. | pain-relieving; soothing; inoffensive, bland | ||
| anon | adv. | soon | ||
| anosmia | n. | loss of the olfactory sense | ||
| anosognosia | n. | neuropsychiatric disorder in which sufferer takes no cognizance of their own serious disability | ||
| antalgic | adj. | easing pain | ||
| antecubital | adj. | of that part of the arm on the other side from the elbow | ||
| antetype | n. | prototype, early form | ||
| anthophobia | n. | fear of flowers | ||
| anticlinal | adj. | loping downwards to both sides of a central axis or ridge | ||
| antimasque | n. | grotesque dance preceding or appearing between acts of a masque | ||
| antimony | n. | silver-white metal element used in alloys and medical compounds | ||
| antinomy | n. | contradiction, paradox | ||
| antiperistalsis | n. | reversed peristalsis, upward (instead of downward) impelled motion of the intestines’ contents | ||
| antiperistasis | n. | quality whereby opposition to a force causes the original force to grow stronger | ||
| antiphrasis | n. | use of a word in the opposite sense of its usual meaning | ||
| antipodes | n. | places directly opposite each other upon a globe; exact opposites | ||
| antipyretic | adj. | tending to reduce fever | ||
| antiscorbutic | n. | agent useful against scurvy | ||
| antonomasia | n. | use of epithet, title, or appellation in place of proper name; use of proper name to designate an idea or another person supposed to share the characteristic property of that named | rhetoric | |
| antrum | n. | cavity in a bone or other part of the anatomy; esp. the nasal cavity | ||
| anuria | n. | lack of urine, failure of kidneys to produce urine | ||
| anxiolytic | adj. | relieving anxiety | ||
| aorist | n. | simple past tense in Ancient Greek, with no further limitations or restrictions; undefined | ||
| aoudad | n. | Barbary sheep | ||
| aperient | adj. | laxative | ||
| aphelion | n. | point at which a body in solar orbit is farthest from the sun | ||
| apical | adj. | of or related to an apex | ||
| apocope | n. | loss, omission, or suppression of final letter, syllable, or sound of a word | ||
| apodictic | adj. | incontestable because demonstrable | ||
| apolaustic | adj. | dedicated to pleasure or enjoyment | ||
| apologue | n. | allegorical tale with a moral lesson | ||
| apolune | n. | highest point of an orbit around a moon | ||
| apophallation | n. | the biting off of the penis | ||
| apophasis | n. | rhetorical figure in which speaker brings up the very subject he or she pretends to deny | ||
| apophenia | n. | tendency to incorrectly perceive connections between unrelated things | ||
| aposiopesis | n. | rhetorical device in which the speaker suddenly stops, as if unable or unwilling to continue | ||
| apostrophe | n. | rhetorical figure wherein the speaker digresses and pointedly addresses some person or personified object | ||
| apotelesm | n. | the casting of a horoscope | ||
| apothegm | n. | terse maxim; sententious saying |
