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This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as "twice an hour," "once an age," a shilling an ounce (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is…

oast, like that of the younger Cyrus into Central Asia, described by Xenophon in his work called "The Anabasis." The anabasis of Napoleon. De Quincey.

The science of reflected light, now called catoptrics.

daceæ), native to America. Transferred to England it became an obstruction to navigation. Called also waterweed and water thyme.

That part of optics which treats of the refraction of light; -- commonly called dioptrics. Encyc. Brit.

stance of a change of construction in a sentence so that the latter part does not syntactically correspond with the first part.

Anaërobic bacteria. They are called facultative anaërobia when able to live either in the presence or absence of free oxygen; obligate, or obligatory, anaërobia when they thrive only in its absence.

urves of the fourth degree which have certain peculiar relations to circles; -- sometimes called bicircular quartics. -- Anallagmatic surfaces, a certain class of surfaces of the fourth degree.

ecies of the same genus, or a genus of the same group, in another: such species are often called representative species, and such genera, representative genera. Dana.

(a) what elements it contains, or (b) how much of each element is present. The former is called qualitative, and the latter quantitative analysis.

A recalling to mind; recollection.

Lawless; anarchical. [R.] We are in the habit of calling those bodies of men anarchal which are in a state of effervescence. Landor.

A disease of the roots of turnips, etc.; -- called also fingers and toes.

part of the ornaments of certain moldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.

n former times, usually at a great distance of time; belonging to times long past; specifically applied to the times before the fall of the Roman empire; -- opposed to modern; as, ancient authors, literature, history; ancient days. Witness those ancient empires of the earth. Milton. Gildas Albanius . . . much ancienter…

f sheep with short crooked legs and long back. It originated in Massachusetts in 1791; -- called also the otter breed.

ned from the volatile oils of anise, fennel, etc., in the form of soft shining scales; -- called also anise camphor. Watts.

elic patience. Macaulay. Angelic Hymn, a very ancient hymn of the Christian Church; -- so called from its beginning with the song of the heavenly host recorded in Luke ii. 14. Eadie.

d leaf stalks of angelica. Angelica tree, a thorny North American shrub (Aralia spinosa), called also Hercules' club.

from a sense of suffocating contraction or tightening of the lower part of the chest; -- called also breast pang, spasm of the chest.