Word origins

• acardiacLacking a heart.
• acaridAny parasitic arachnid, such as mites and ticks, of the subclass Acarina.
• acaridanSynonym of acarid.
• acarpousNot producing fruit; unfruitful; sterile.
• acatalepsyIncomprehensibility of things; the doctrine held by the ancient skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.
• acathistusA Greek liturgical hymn in honour of Mary.
• aceldamaA field of bloodshed, a place of slaughter.
• acentricNot centered; without a centre.
• acephalOne of the Acephala.
• acephalocystA larval entozoön in the form of a subglobular or oval vesicle, or hydatid, filled with fluid, sometimes found in the tissues of man and the lower animals; -- so called from the absence of a head or visible organs on the vesicle. These cysts are the immature stages of certain tapeworms. Also applied to similar cysts of different origin.
• acerousDestitute of tentacles.
• AcesoA goddess and personification of the healing process, daughter of Asclepius.
• acheilouslipless
• achilousWithout a lip.
• achlamydateNot possessing a mantle.
• achluophobiaThe fear of darkness.
• achluophobicOf or relating to achluophobia (a morbid fear of darkness or nightfall).
• AchlysAn ancient Greek goddess of death-mist, misery and sadness.
• achoresisA diminished capacity of any of the hollow viscera (such as the bladder or stomach).
• achroiteA colourless form of tourmaline
• achromatizeTo deprive of colour; to make achromatic.
• achroousColorless; achromatic.
• aciurgyOperative surgery.
• acleioprocticHaving the anus located dorsally.
• aclinicWithout inclination or dipping.
• acoelAny of the order Acoela of xenacoelomorphs that resemble flatworms and were originally classified as such.
• AcoemetaeAn order of fifth-century monks who, by turns, kept up a divine service day and night.
• Acœmitæa 5th century monastic order that organised themselves into sleep cyles to allow for a unbroken chain of devotion to be performed.
• acolasialicentiousness
• acologyMateria medica; the science of medical remedies, or of therapeutics.
• acolouthaA fully reciprocal synonym.
• acopicRelieving weariness; restorative.
• acoumeterAn instrument for measuring the acuteness of the sense of hearing.
• acoumetryThe measuring of the power or extent of hearing.
• acridologyThe scientific study of grasshoppers and locusts (of the infraorder Acrididea).
• acridophagusOne who eats grasshoppers and locusts.
• acritarchAny small, non-acid-soluble (i.e. non-carbonate, non-siliceous) organic fossil that cannot be classified.
• acritochromacyColor blindness, achromatopsia.
• acroaticacroamatic.
• acrocephalyThe condition of suffering from a pointed skull.
• acrodromeThat run parallel to the edges of the leaf and meet at the tip
• acrogynousProducing archegonia from the apical cell of a reproductive branch.
• acrolithAn ancient Greek wooden statue furnished with a rupestral head and limbs.
• acromesomeliaA form of dwarfism characterised by both acromelia and mesomelia
• acromphalusAn abnormal protrusion of the navel that sometimes leads to umbilical hernia
• acronemeThe slender section of a flagellum
• acronicalOccurring at sunset.
• acropetalThat develops, matures or opens from the base towards the apex in sequence.
• acrophonyThe naming of letters in an alphabetic writing system using words whose initial sounds are represented by the respective letters.
• acroteleuticThe end of a verse or psalm, or something added to it, to be sung by the people by way of a response.
• acrotericRelating to the extremities of the limbs or to the tip of the nose
• acrotomophiliaA paraphilia involving sexual attraction toward amputees.
• actinalPertaining to the side or surface around the mouth in an animal that has radial symmetry such as a starfish.
• actino-ray, ray-shaped
• actinostA bone at the base of a paired fin (of a fish)
• actinulaA kind of larva of certain hydroids (Tubularia).
• Actistetesa Julianist sect which stood in opposition to the Ctistolatræ an believed that Jesus shouldn't be spoken of as a created being, which was a form of Docetism and anti-Nicenean.
• acuphenometryThe measurement of tinnitus.
• -acusisForms names of hearing impairments.
• acyrologiaan inexact, inappropriate or improper use of a word
• acyronThe use of words incompatible with or contrary to the speaker's meaning.
• -adA unit or set (especially of a specified number).
• adamanceThe quality of being adamant
• adamancyThe property of being adamant.
• adamantoidA crystal characterized by being bound by 48 equal triangles; a hexoctahedron.
• AdamosA transliteration of the Ancient Greek male given name Ἄδαμος (Ádamos), alternative form of Ἀδάμ (Adám), equivalent of Adam.
• adelasterA provisional name for a plant which has not had its flowers botanically examined, and therefore has not been referred to its proper genus.
• adelocodonicApplied to hydroids' sexual zooids that have a saclike form and do not become free.
• AdelophagiAn obscure Christian sect, possibly from the 4th century, which held prohibitions about eating in front of others, either commanding their followers to eat alone or isolate from those not in their sect.
• adelphicDescribing a form of polyandry in which a woman is married to two or more brothers
• adelpho-Related to siblings.
• adelphoiThe brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, named in the New Testament as James, Joses, Simon, and Jude; unnamed sisters are mentioned in Mark and Matthew.
• adelphophagyThe consumption of one embryo by another in utero, particularly among certain amphibians, sharks and fishes.
• adelphopoiesisFraternisation between men.
• adelphotaxonA sister taxon.
• adelphousHaving coalescent or clustered filaments.
• adeniformShaped like a gland
• adeno-gland
• adenocysticRelating to adenocystomas
• AdephagiaThe goddess and personification of gluttony.
• adephagousgreedy, gluttonous
• adermatoglyphiaThe absence of epidermal ridges (fingerprints and toeprints).
• adesmyThe division or defective coherence of an organ that is usually whole.
• AdiabeneAn ancient kingdom in Assyria, with its capital at Arbela.
• adianoetaAn expression intended to be understood one way by part of the audience and in an opposing way by another part.
• adiaphoriststhe followers of Phillip Melancthon's doctrines of Lutheranism, especially regarding the Lutheran's adoption of the Interim of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
• adiaphoronA matter that is morally neutral.
• adiaphoryindifference
• -adicHaving a specified adicity.
• adipsiaAbsence of thirst.
• AdoniaAn annual festival celebrated by women in ancient Greece to mourn the death of Adonis, the consort of Aphrodite.
• AdonicOf or pertaining to Adonis.
• AdrasteaThe goddess of divine retribution
• adynamiaLack or loss of strength, usually due to a disease.
• adytonSynonym of adytum.
• AeacidA descendant of King Aeacus.
• aedoe-Relating to genitalia.
• ædœologyStudy of human genitalia.
• aegagrusThe wild goat Capra aegagrus.
• Aegean SeaA sea in the northeastern part of the Mediterranean.