8-letter words that end in a
- apatheia — absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.
- apimania — an extreme enthusiasm for bees
- apologia — An apologia is a statement in which you defend something that you strongly believe in, for example a way of life, a person's behaviour, or a philosophy.
- apositia — a lack of appetite
- apyrexia — absence of fever
- aquileia — a town in NE Italy, at the head of the Adriatic: important Roman centre, founded in 181 bc. Pop: 3329 (2001)
- arabella — a feminine name: dim. Bella
- araguaia — a river in central Brazil, rising in S central Mato Grosso state and flowing north to the Tocantins River. Length: over 1771 km (1100 miles)
- araguaya — a river in S central Brazil, flowing N to the Tocantins River. 1600 miles (2575 km) long.
- aral sea — a lake in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, east of the Caspian Sea, formerly the fourth largest lake in the world: shallow and saline, now badly polluted; use of its source waters for irrigation led to a loss of over 50% of its area between 1967 and 1997, after which the reduction began to be slowed. Area originally (to 1960) about 68 000 sq km (26 400 sq miles); water area reduced by 2004 to about 17 158 sq km (6625 sq miles) and the lake divided into sections
- aranyaka — one of a class of the Vedic texts that, together with the Upanishads, make up the closing portions of the Brahmanas.
- arapaima — a very large primitive freshwater teleost fish, Arapaima gigas, that occurs in tropical South America and can attain a length of 4.5 m (15 ft) and a weight of 200 kg (440 lbs): family Osteoglossidae
- araponga — any of four species of South American birds of the genus Procnias, each having a bell-like call
- araucana — any of numerous varieties of domestic chickens derived from South American wild fowl, noted for producing pale blue, green, or pinkish eggs.
- arequipa — a city in S Peru, at an altitude of 2250 m (7500 ft): founded in 1540 on the site of an Inca city. Pop: 791 000 (2005 est)
- arethusa — a North American orchid, Arethusa bulbosa, having one long narrow leaf and one rose-purple flower fringed with yellow
- armonica — a glass harmonica, being a musical instrument of the 18th century consisting of a set of glass bowls of graduated pitches, played by rubbing the fingers over the moistened rims or by a keyboard mechanism
- armorica — an ancient name for Brittany
- arrastra — A device formerly used by gold-miners for grinding auriferous quartz, crudely resembling a mortar and pestle, with the crushing element dragged around by horse or mule.
- ars nova — a style of music of the 14th century, characterized by great freedom and variety of rhythm and melody contrasted with the strictness of the music of the 13th century
- arythmia — Alternative spelling of arrhythmia.
- ascomata — a fruiting body that bears asci.
- asfetida — asafetida.
- ashikaga — a member of a powerful family in Japan that ruled as shoguns 1338–1573.
- aspermia — the failure to form or emit semen
- asphyxia — Asphyxia is death or loss of consciousness caused by being unable to breathe properly.
- aspirata — a heavily aspirated stop that is made without vibration of the vocal cords
- asplenia — Absence of normal spleen function.
- assoluta — absolute; supreme: a prima ballerina assoluta.
- asthenia — an abnormal loss of strength; debility
- astigmia — Also called astigmia [uh-stig-mee-uh] /əˈstɪg mi ə/ (Show IPA). Ophthalmology. a refractive error of the eye in which parallel rays of light from an external source do not converge on a single focal point on the retina.
- asyndeta — Plural form of asyndeton.
- atalanta — a maiden who agreed to marry any man who could defeat her in a running race. She lost to Hippomenes when she paused to pick up three golden apples that he had deliberately dropped
- ataraxia — calmness or peace of mind; emotional tranquillity
- atheroma — a fatty deposit on or within the inner lining of an artery, often causing an obstruction to the blood flow
- atrichia — congenital absence or loss of hair.
- atrophia — Also, atrophia [uh-troh-fee-uh] /əˈtroʊ fi ə/ (Show IPA). Pathology. a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, as from defective nutrition or nerve damage.
- aubrieta — any of a genus (Aubrieta) of plants of the crucifer family native to the Middle East, with showy, purplish flowers: often grown in rock gardens
- audhumla — a cow, owned by Ymir and born like him from drops of the melting primeval ice: its licking of a mass of salty ice exposed the first god, Buri.
- auricula — a widely cultivated alpine primrose, Primula auricula, with leaves shaped like a bear's ear
- automata — automaton
- avicenna — Arabic name ibn-Sina. 980–1037, Arab philosopher and physician whose philosophical writings, which combined Aristotelianism with neo-Platonist ideas, greatly influenced scholasticism, and whose medical work Qanun was the greatest single influence on medieval medicine
- avifauna — all the birds in a particular region
- axilemma — the membrane surrounding the axon of a nerve fiber.
- axolemma — the membrane that encloses the axon of a nerve cell
- ayurveda — an ancient medical treatise on the art of healing and prolonging life, sometimes regarded as a fifth Veda
- az-zarqa — Zarqa.
- azotemia — the accumulation of nitrogenous substances in the blood, resulting from failure of the kidneys to remove them
- azoturia — the condition of having excess nitrogen in the urine
- babirusa — a wild pig, Babyrousa babyrussa, inhabiting marshy forests in Indonesia. It has an almost hairless wrinkled skin and enormous curved canine teeth