Dictionary


Al



Pronunciation: (al), [key]
—n.
a male given name: form of Albert, Alfred, Aloysius.

à l'




form of à la used for either gender before a vowel or h.

al-




var. of ad- before l: allure.

Al-




a word in Arabic names meaning “family” or “the house of ”: Al-Saud, or the members of the house of Saud.

-al




a suffix with the general sense “of the kind of, pertaining to, having the form or character of” that named by the stem, occurring in loanwords from Latin (autumnal; natural; pastoral), and productive in English on the Latin model, usually with bases of Latin origin (accidental; seasonal; tribal). Originally, -al1 was restricted to stems not containing an -l- (cf. -ar1 ); recent lapses in this rule have produced semantically distinct pairs, as familiar and familial. Cf. -ical, ial.

-al




a suffix forming nouns from verbs, usually verbs of French or Latin origin: denial; refusal.

-al




Chem.a suffix indicating that a compound contains an aldehyde group: chloral.

AL




1. Alabama (approved esp. for use with zip code).
2. Anglo-Latin.

Al




—Symbol, Chem.
aluminum.

AL.




Anglo-Latin.

al.




1. other things.
2. other persons.

A.L.




1. Baseball.American League.
2. American Legion.
3. Anglo-Latin.

a.l.




autograph letter.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.

Akyabà la
See also:
  • Al (Thesaurus)
  • Al (Encyclopedia)

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