Other uses

Main article: A (disambiguation)

In algebra, the letter a along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent
known quantities, whereas the letters at the end of the alphabet (x, y, z) are used to denote unknown
quantities.
In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to denote segments, lines, rays, etc.[5] A capital A is also
typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing
the side opposite angle A.[4]
"A" is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status:
A-, A or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for
clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, as exposure
to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters.[9]
"A" is used as a prefix on some words, such as asymmetry, to mean "not" or "without" (from Greek).
In English grammar, "a", and its variant "an", is an indefinite article.
Finally, the letter A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe,[4] or a small cup size in
a brassiere.[10]

Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
 Æ æ : Latin  AE ligature
 A with diacritics: Å å Ǻ ǻ Ḁ ḁ ẚ Ă ă Ặ ặ Ắ ắ Ằ ằ Ẳ ẳ Ẵ ẵ Ȃ ȃ Â â Ậ ậ Ấ ấ Ầ ầ Ẫ ẫ Ẩ ẩ Ả ả Ǎ ǎ Ⱥ
ⱥ Ȧ ȧ Ǡ ǡ Ạ ạ Ä ä Ǟ ǟ À à Ȁ ȁ Á á Ā ā Ā̀ ā̀  Ã ã Ą ą Ą́ ą́ Ą̃ ą̃ A̲ a̲ ᶏ [11]

 Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses

lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems):
o Ɑ ɑ : Latin letter alpha / script A, which represents an open back unrounded vowel in
the IPA
o ᶐ : Latin small letter alpha with retroflex hook[11]
o Ɐ ɐ : Turned A, which represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA
o Λ ʌ : Turned V (also called a wedge, a caret, or a hat), which represents an open-mid
back unrounded vowel in the IPA
o Ɒ ɒ : Turned alpha / script A, which represents an open back rounded vowel in the
IPA
o ᶛ : Modifier letter small turned alpha[11]
o ᴀ : Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic
Alphabet used to represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)
o ᴬ ᵃ ᵄ : Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA)[12]
o ₐ : Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies[13]
o ꬱ : Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription
system[14]
o Ꞻ ꞻ : Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic[15]
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
 ª : an ordinal indicator
 Å : Ångström sign
 ∀ : a turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for
all")
 @ : At sign
 ₳ : Argentine austral
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
 𐤀 : Semitic letter Aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive[16]
o Α α : Greek letter Alpha, from which the following letters derive[17]
 А а : Cyrillic letter A[18]
 Ⲁ ⲁ : Coptic letter Alpha[19]
 𐌀 : Old Italic A, which is the ancestor of modern Latin A[20][21]
 ᚨ : Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A[22]
 𐌰 : Gothic letter aza/asks[citation needed]
 Ա ա : Armenian letter Ayb

Computing codes
Character A a

LATIN CAPITAL LETTER LATIN SMALL LETTER

Unicode name
A A

Encodings decimal hex decimal hex

Unicode 65 U+0041 97 U+0061

UTF-8 65 41 97 61

Numeric character
A A a a
reference

EBCDIC family 193 C1 129 81

ASCII 1 65 41 97 61

1
 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families
of encodings.

Other representations
NATO phonetic Morse code

Alpha ·–

American manual Braille

Signal flag Flag semaphore
alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) dots-1

Notes
1. ^ Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered As,
A's, as, or a's.[1]

Footnotes
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1
2. ^ McCarter 1974, p. 54
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hoiberg 2010, p. 1
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Hall-Quest 1997, p. 1
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Diringer 2000, p. 1
6. ^ Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45
7. ^ Anon 2004
8. ^ Anon 2006
9. ^ Ciani & Sheldon 2010, pp. 99–100
10. ^ Luciani, Jené (2009). The bra book  : the fashion formula to finding the perfect bra. Voltz,
Ralph. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books, Inc. p. 13.  ISBN  9781933771946.  OCLC 317453115.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c Constable, Peter (19 April 2004).  "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic
characters to the UCS"  (PDF). Archived  (PDF)  from the original on 11 October 2017.
Retrieved 24 March  2018.
 12. ^ Everson, Michael; et al. (20 March 2002). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters
for the UCS"  (PDF).  Archived  (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 24
March  2018.
13. ^ Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (7 June 2004). "L2/04-191: Proposal to encode six
Indo-Europeanist phonetic characters in the UCS"  (PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on 11
October 2017. Retrieved 24 March  2018.
14. ^ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2 June
2011). "L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the
UCS"  (PDF). Archived  (PDF)  from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 24 March  2018.
15. ^ Suignard, Michel (9 May 2017). "L2/17-076R2: Revised proposal for the encoding of an
Egyptological YOD and Ugaritic characters"  (PDF). Archived  (PDF)  from the original on 30 March
2019. Retrieved  8 March  2019.
16. ^ Jensen, Hans, Sign, Symbol, and Script, G.P. Putman's Sons, New York, 1969.
17. ^ "Hebrew lesson of the week: The letter Aleph".  The Times of Israel.  Archivedfrom the
original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
18. ^ "Cyrillic alphabet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018.
Retrieved 25 May 2018.
19. ^ Silvestre, Joseph Balthaszar; (Jacques-Joseph), M. Champollion-Figeac; Champollion-
Figeac, Aimé Louis (1850). Universal Palaeography. H.G. Bohn.
20. ^ American journal of archaeology. 1891.
21. ^ Steele, Philippa (31 August 2017).  Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean
Writing Systems. Oxbow Books.  ISBN  9781785706479.
22. ^ IV, Benjamin W. Fortson (7 September 2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An
Introduction. John Wiley & Sons.  ISBN  9781444359688.

References
 Anon (2004). "English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Club. Cornell
University. Archived from the original on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
 Anon (2006). "Percentages of Letter frequencies per Thousand words". Trinity College.
Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
 Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon M. (2010). "A versus F: The effects of implicit letter priming
on cognitive performance". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 80 (1): 99–
119. doi:10.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200.
 Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. I: A-Anjou
(First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-7172-0133-4.
 Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K. Anne (ed.). Academic American
Encyclopedia. I: A–Ang (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-7172-
2068-7.
 Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. I:
A to Ameland (First ed.). New York, NY: P.F. Collier.
 Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1: A-ak–Bayes. Chicago, IL:
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
 McCarter, P. Kyle (September 1974). "The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet". The Biblical
Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–68. doi:10.2307/3210965. JSTOR 3210965.
 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E.S.C., eds. (1989). "A". The Oxford English Dictionary. I: A–
Bazouki (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861213-1.

External links