Words that start with A

The aardvark is from Africa. It is a very good digger and sleeps during the day and comes out at night to dig. Aardvarks are distantly related to elephants. Aardvarks eat ants and termites.

Aardvarks are extremely primitive in their makeup and could be called a living fossil.

An abacus was used for counting and adding up before calculators. It is made from beads on a frame that you slide backwards and forwards.

An abalone is a very large sea snail. Abalones are a different shape to most snails - they have a wide, flat shell. You can still see the spiral shape in their shell.

Abalones are caught and eaten as food, and their shells are used to make jewellery.

Australian Aborigines were the first people to live in Australia. There were once many, many different tribes of Aborigines, each with different traditions and languages.

Around 2% of the Australian population identifies as Aboriginal.

Something is above something else it it is higher up. In the picture, the child is above the soldier.

Something is abrasive if it is used to grind or polish something else. A good example of something that is abrasive is sandpaper.

Art is abstract if it has been derived, or abstracted from something real but doesn't bear a close resemblance to what it is supposed to represent, like more traditional art does. Some parts of the art might be recognisable, some exaggerated, some downplayed. Abstract art can be so stylised you can't even recognise what it is, so sometimes when you look at an abstract picture or sculpture you can't tell what it is a picture or sculpture of.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It has a population of around 900,000.

Abuja is the capital of Nigeria. It has a population of around 780,000.

The Abyssinian is an ancient breed of cat of uncertain origin, from either Egypt or Ethiopia. It is slim, lithe, and has a distinctive flecked (ticked) brown coat, large ears, and a long tail.

They are active, intelligent, curious cats. They make good pets, but need constant attention or they get bored and unhappy. They are excellent hunters, so this needs to be taken into consideration if you live near a wildlife reserve and want an Abyssinian as a pet.