indefinite article

indefinite article (plural indefinite articles)

1. (grammar) A word preceding a noun to indicate that the noun refers to any member of the class of objects named by the noun.
   • 1884, Napoleone Perini, “On the Use of the Indefinite Article”, in An Italian Conversation Grammar, page 98:

     The English Indefinite Article, "a" or "an", is more frequently used that the Italian Indefinite Article, "un", "uno", "una".

   • 1921, Harry Egerton Ford, “Part II. Morphology”, in Modern Provençal Phonology and Morphology:

     In the indefinite article, we must note the plural in i, due to the influence of the plural li of the definite article[.]

   • 2018, Kory Stamper, Word by Word, page 28:

     The main literary dialect of ancient Greek ... has a definite article, but no indefinite article.

• In English, this term can be represented as a (before a consonant sound) or an (before a vowel sound) in the singular; in the plural, an indefinite article isn't used at all.

• definite article

• article