Apetalous, a-pet′al-us, adj. (bot.) without petals. [Gr. a, neg., and petalon, a petal.]
Apex, ā′peks, n. the summit or point: the vertex of a triangle: the culminating point, climax of anything:—pl. Apexes (ā′peks-ez), Apices (ap′i-sēz). [L. apex, the peak of the flamen's cap.]
Aphæresis, Apheresis, a-fer′i-sis, n. (gram.) the taking away of a letter or syllable at the beginning of a word. [Gr. aphairesis, a taking away, apo, away, and haire-ein, to take.]
Aphaniptera, af-an-ip′tėr-a, n.pl. a small order of insects having but rudimentary scales in place of wings.—adj. Aphanip′terous. [Gr. aphanēs, invisible, pteron, wing.]
Aphasia, a-fā′zi-a, n. inability to express thought in words by reason of some brain disease: or, more widely still, the loss of the faculty of interchanging thought, without any affection of the intellect or will.—adj. Aphas′ic. [Gr.; a, neg., phasis, speech—phanai, to speak.]
Aphelion, a-fē′li-on, n. the point of a planet's orbit farthest away from the sun:—pl. Aphē′lia. [Gr. apo, from, hēlios, the sun.]
Apheliotropic, a-fē-li-o-trop′ik, adj. turning away from the sun. [Gr. apo, away, hēlios, sun, and tropikos, belonging to turning—trep-ein, to turn.]
Aphemia, a-fēm′i-a, n. loss of speech caused by difficulty in articulation due to paralysis. [Gr. a, neg., and phēmē, voice, fame—phanai, to speak.]
Apheresis. See Aphæresis.
Aphesis, af′es-is, n. the gradual loss of an unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word, as in squire = esquire—a special form of Aphæresis.—adj. Aphet′ic. [Coined by Dr Murray. Gr.]