[1] THE NEW GRESHAM ENCYCLOPEDIA VOLUME I. A, the first letter in many alphabets. The sound most commonly belonging to it, as in French, Italian, German, &c., is that which is heard in father, pronounced short or long.In English the letter is made to represent at least seven sounds, as in father, mat, mate, mare, many, ball, what, besides being used in such digraphs as ea in heat, oa in boat ...