ans

1. 1
   nounabbreviation

   Abbreviation of answer.

   Show your work for each question and box the final ans.

   Emailed the supplier twice and got no ans, so call them Monday.

   Note

   A shortcut for the page rather than for speech: it turns up in worksheets, notes and hurried messages, and it carries both everyday meanings of the full noun, a reply to someone and the solution to a problem. Read aloud, it is simply answer. The same spelling is also the plural of the Georgian letter, though context almost always settles which is meant.

2. 2
   verbabbreviation

   Abbreviation of answer.

   Replies welcome, and I'll ans every letter within a week.

   Out of the office until Monday; will ans emails then.

   Note

   Clipping the verb is a habit of writing where every word counts, as in Billy Smith’s personal advertisement in Gay Community News (1979): “I will ans all letters.” It behaves like the full verb, taking letters, emails or a call as its object and following will, can or please without change.

3. 3
   SayANZ/ˈænz/

   noun

   Plural of an.

   The calligraphy workbook gives a full page to tracing Mkhedruli ans.

   The sign painter made sure the three ans in the shop's Georgian name matched in size.

   Note

   Only one kind of an can be counted: the noun that names the first letter of the Georgian alphabet, written ა in Mkhedruli, Ⴀ in Asomtavruli and ⴀ in Nuskhuri. The indefinite article never takes a plural, and the US Army and Navy screw-thread sizes that share the name are uncountable, so this form belongs to the letter alone.

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