Words that start with A

The alpaca is a kind of domestic animal bred for its wool, the same reason people keep sheep. Alpacas are related to llamas and camels but are a lot smaller than both. Alpacas come in lots of different colours, such as black, white and lots of different shades of brown.

An altar is a sacred place, often inside a church or shrine, where religious ceremonies take place.

Aluminium, also spelt aluminum, is the most common metal in the world, and the third most common element (after oxygen and silicon). It is durable and lightweight, and is a very important metal for making planes out of.
Aluminium is highly reactive and you cannot find pure aluminium in the same way you can find pure gold or copper, so it was once considered a rare precious metal. It is a very energy intensive process to refine aluminium.
Aluminium is used for building (particularly frames for doors and windows) and vehicle construction, household aluminium foil, masts on ships, walking sticks, and lots of household utensils and appliances.

Amaranths are a large group of plants that include some fast-growing weeds. Some varieties of amaranth, particularly the grain amaranth, grow a large crop of highly-nutritious seeds, and are sometimes referred to as the 'crop of the future'.
Some species of amaranth have edible leaves and can be cooked or eaten raw as a salad vegetable.

An ambulance is a type of van that is used to take sick or injured people to a hospital or doctor's surgery. Ambulances often have emergency equipment in them so ambulance officers can save people's lives when they arrive instead of just driving them to the hospital. Ambulances are also used to take people from one hospital to another.
The word 'ambulance' is written backwards on the front of an ambulance so people in cars can read the writing in their rear view mirrors.

Ammunition relates to anything needed for firing a weapon, such as the supply of bullets and any other supplies like priming powder. Ammunition can also be used to describe spent parts of the ammunition after the weapon has been fired.

An amplifier is a device that increases the amplitude of a signal. For most people, this means it takes sound and makes it louder. Modern amplifiers also take incoming electrical signals and turn them into sound. When you plug headphones into your iPod, the amplifier in the headphones converts the signal from the iPod into sounds.

You use the word an instead of a in front of a word that starts with a vowel.

For example, "I saw an elephant".

An anchor is a device that is used to stop a ship or boat from drifting away. Anchors are made from heavy metal, and are hooked so they catch onto the seabed. They are attached to the ship by a long chain or rope, and are let down when the ship needs to be still, and lifted up when the ship needs to move again.

Something is ancient if it is from the distant past, or is very old. Most things that are described as ancient are from civilizations that have since fallen.