an-(word root) not, withoutExamples of words with the root an-: anhydrousAbused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embreean-pref. Variant of a-1.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.an- or before a consonant a-prefixnot; without: anaphrodisiac. [from Greek]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014an1 (?n; when stressed æn) indefinite article. the form of a 1 before an initial vowel sound(an arch; an honor) and sometimes, esp. in British English, before an initial unstressed syllable beginning with a silent or weakly pronounced h: an historian. [before 950; Middle English; Old English ?n one] usage: See a1. an3 (?n; when stressed æn) prep. the form of a2 before an initial vowel sound: 14 dollars an ounce; 55 miles an hour.usage: See per.an2 or an’ (?n; when stressed æn) ‘n, ‘n’, conj. 1. Pron. Spelling. and. 2. Archaic. if. [1125?75; Middle English, unstressed phonetic variant of and] an-1 , a prefix occurring orig. in loanwords from Greek, with the meanings ?not,? ?without,? ?lacking? ( anaerobic; anhydrous; anonymous); regularly attached to words or stems beginning with a vowel or h.Compare a-6. [