abaft (en)

(adverb) toward or at the stern; aft / (preposition) to the rear of / (preposition) toward the stern from

Abitur (en)

university-preparatory school leaving qualification in Germany, Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia (similar to A-levels)

abluvion (en)

(noun, obsolete, rare) that which is washed off.

accession (en)

a coming to; the act of acceding and becoming joined; as, a king's accession to a confederacy

acclivated (en)

upward sloping

actantial (en)

(in structural semantics) a model or narrative schema used to analyze the action that takes place in a story, whether real or fictional; developed in 1966 by semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas

ad libitum (la)

"at one's pleasure"; more formal term for ad-lib

adduce (en)

(verb) to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis

adit (en)

(noun) a nearly horizontal passage from the surface in a mine

adobe (en)

(noun) a brick or building material of sun-dried earth and straw / (noun) a structure made of adobe bricks / (noun) a heavy clay used in making adobe bricks / (noun) alluvial or playa clay in desert or arid regions

adze (en)

(noun) a cutting tool that has a thin arched blade set at right angles to the handle and is used chiefly for shaping wood

aerie (en)

(noun) the nest of a bird on a cliff or a mountaintop / (noun) a brood of birds of prey / (noun) an elevated often secluded dwelling, structure, or position

agonal breathing (en)

is an abnormal pattern of breathing and brainstem reflex characterized by gasping, labored breathing

airling (en)

(obsolete) A thoughtless, light-hearted person.

albescent (en)

(adjective, literary) growing or shading into white. "the albescent waves on the horizon"

alembic (en)

(noun) an apparatus used in distillation / (noun) something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation (from alchemy)

aliquot (en)

(adjective) contained an exact number of times in something else / (adjective) fractional

amphibology (en)

(noun) a sentence or phrase (as “nothing is good enough for you”) that can be interpreted in more than one way

anaclitic (en)

(adjective) of, relating to, or characterized by the direction of love toward an object (as the mother) that satisfies nonsexual needs (as hunger)

anacreontic (en)

(adjective) of, relating to, or resembling the poetry of Anacreon / (adjective) convivial or amatory in tone or theme / (noun) a poem in the manner of Anacreon / (noun) a drinking song or light lyric

analepsis (grk)

flashback

anaphoric reference (en)

a word refers back to a previous word for its meaning

anastrophe (en)

(noun) inversion of the usual syntactical order of words for rhetorical effect (literary device)

anfractuous (en)

(adjective) full of windings and intricate turnings; tortuous

aniline dye (en)

a type of synthetic dye ("aniline" being an organic compound - an amine)