"an" meaning in English

See an in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Determiner

IPA: /æn/ [stressed], /ən/ [unstressed] Audio: en-us-an.ogg [US, stressed], en-us-an-unstressed.ogg [unstressed, US]
  1. An is used when you don't expect your listener to identify which thing you mean. Tags: singular Synonyms: one, any, each
    Sense id: simple-an-en-det-xVF43PPl Categories (other): Count determiners, Indefinite determiners, Singular determiners
     
{
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "det",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Count determiners",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Indefinite determiners",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Singular determiners",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I just ate an apple."
        },
        {
          "text": "It is indeed an honor to have met you today."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An is used when you don't expect your listener to identify which thing you mean."
      ],
      "id": "simple-an-en-det-xVF43PPl",
      "raw_tags": [
        "indefinite",
        "count"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "one"
        },
        {
          "word": "any"
        },
        {
          "word": "each"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/æn/",
      "tags": [
        "stressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/{n/",
      "tags": [
        "stressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-an.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "stressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ən/",
      "tags": [
        "unstressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/@n/",
      "tags": [
        "unstressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-an-unstressed.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "unstressed",
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "an"
}

{
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "det",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Count determiners",
        "Indefinite determiners",
        "Singular determiners"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I just ate an apple."
        },
        {
          "text": "It is indeed an honor to have met you today."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An is used when you don't expect your listener to identify which thing you mean."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "indefinite",
        "count"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "one"
        },
        {
          "word": "any"
        },
        {
          "word": "each"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/æn/",
      "tags": [
        "stressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/{n/",
      "tags": [
        "stressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-an.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "stressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ən/",
      "tags": [
        "unstressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/@n/",
      "tags": [
        "unstressed"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-an-unstressed.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "unstressed",
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "an"
}

Download raw JSONL data for an meaning in English (0.8kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-15 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.