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A
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A is the first vowel and letter in the Sanskrit alphabet. The phoneme “a” is thought to be the source of all other phonemes and its corresponding letter the origin of all other letters. As the basis of both the Sanskrit phonemic system and the written alphabet, the letter “a” Thus Comes to be invested with mystical significance as the source of truth, non-differentiation, and emptiness (shunyaTa), or even of the universe as a whole. The Prajna ParamitasarvatathaGATAMaTa-EKaKshARa, the shortest of the perfection of wisdom scriptures, also describes how the entirety of the perfection of wisdom is subsumed by this one letter. The letter in the Sanskrit SiddhaM alphabet gained special significance within the esoteric Buddhist traditions in Japan (MIKKYo), such as Shingon (see SHINGONSHu), which considered it to be the “seed” (BiJA) of MAHaVairochana, the central divinity of esoteric Buddhism, and used it in a distinctive type of meditation called AJIKAN (“contemplation of the letter 'a'”). The letter “a,” which is said to be originally uncreated (AJI HONPUSHo), is interpreted to be the essence of all phenomena in the universe and the Dharmakaya of the Buddha Maha Vairochana. In the East Asian Chan traditions, the letter “a” is also sometimes understood to represent the Buddha nature (FOXING, S. Buddhadhatu) of all sentient beings.
A on Wiktionary
- Snippet from Wikipedia: A
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced AY), plural aes.
It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey ⟨a⟩ and single-storey ⟨ɑ⟩. The letter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.
In English, a is the indefinite article, with the alternative form an.
A is the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, Latin alphabet and English alphabet.
A may also refer to:
Science and technology
Quantities and units
- Absorbance (A)
- Acceleration (a)
- Adsorption (a)
- Area (A)
- Bohr radius (a0)
- Gain (electronics) (A) - Gain
- Hall coefficient (AH)
- Hamaker constant (A)
- Hyperfine coupling constant (a or A)
- Mass number (A)
- The unique, or one of the, reciprocal lattice vector(s) (a*)
- Relative atomic mass (Ar)
- Unit cell length (a)
Biology
- A+ and A−, human blood types
- Haplogroup A (mtDNA), a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup
- Haplogroup A (Y-DNA), a Y-chromosomal DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroup
- Alanine, an amino acid
- ATC code A, Alimentary tract and metabolism, a section of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System
Computing
Programming languages
Other uses in computing
- A* search algorithm, a pathfinding algorithm
- A-0 System, an early computer compiler
- a, equivalent (qname) to the RDF Schema Property rdf:type
- A level of web accessibility defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Mathematics and logic
- A numerical digit meaning ten in hexadecimal and other positional numeral systems with a radix of 11 or greater
- Sometimes in blackboard bold represents the algebraic numbers (<math>\mathbb{A}</math>) (U+1D538 in Unicode)
- Universal quantifier in symbolic logic (symbol ∀ or <math>\forall</math>, an inverted letter A)
- Universal affirmative, one of the four types of categorical proposition in logic
- Mills' constant is represented by the symbol A
- Glaisher–Kinkelin constant is also often represented by the symbol A
Other uses in science and technology
- A battery (size), a standard battery size
- Argon, symbol formerly A, now Ar
- The center of a hexagonal face of the Brillouin zone of a hexagonal lattice, in physics
Music
- A (musical note), the sixth solfège note
- A major, a scale
- A minor, a scale
- A major chord; see Chord names and symbols (popular music)
Geography
Linguistics
Letters
- A (Bengali), the romanized name of the Bengali letter অ
- A (cuneiform), the romanized name of a cuneiform sign
- A (Cyrillic) (A or а), the first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet
- Alpha (Α or α), the first letter of the Greek alphabet
Other uses in linguistics
- A and an, the indefinite article in English
- A, a glossing abbreviation for agent-like argument of canonical transitive verb
, the IPA representation of the open front unrounded vowel
, the IPA representation of the open back unrounded vowel
Philosophy and religion
- Alpha, (sometimes A) in Christian theology, a metaphor for the beginning/creation of time and matter
- An anarchist symbol, an A within a circle
Transport
Automobile
- Ford Model A, a name used by two separate cars produced by the Ford Motor Company:
Other uses
- A (grade), an academic grade
- A series of paper sizes defined by ISO 216, e.g. A4, A5 sizes
- A formation, an American football offensive formation
- A-Frame, a type of structure
- Ace, a playing card
See also
- ⓐ and Ⓐ, see Enclosed Alphanumerics
Research It More
Disambiguation in a Wiki is the process of resolving conflicts that arise when a potential article title is ambiguous. (See Disambiguation)
- A on Wiktionary
- A on DuckDuckGo
- A on StackOverflow
Fair Use Sources
- A on DuckDuckGo
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