175 Verbs That Start With A | Definitions, Examples & Study Tips
Verbs that start with A range from everyday essentials, like “add,” “ask,” and “agree,” to advanced vocabulary, like “abbreviate” and “amplify.”
This guide covers 175 verbs that start with A, organized by common verbs for everyday English and advanced verbs that will help you succeed with academic writing, workplace communication, and standardized tests.
60 common verbs that start with A
Here are the 60 most common verbs that start with the letter A and their definitions.
- Absorb: Take in liquid or knowledge
- Abuse: Harm someone or use something excessively
- Accept: Agree to take something or consider it valid
- Access: Gain the ability to use or see something
- Accomplish: Finish a task successfully
- Accuse: Say that someone did something wrong or illegal
- Ace: Do something perfectly, like a test or a performance
- Ache: Feel pain
- Achieve: Reach a goal after hard work
- Act: Take action, perform on a stage, or behave in a certain way
- Add: Join things together to increase the size or amount
- Adjust: Change yourself to fit something better
- Admire: Look up to someone with respect
- Admit: Confess that something is true or allow entry
- Adopt: Legally take as one’s own or choose to follow
- Adore: Love and respect someone deeply
- Advance: Move forward
- Advise: Tell someone what they should do
- Affect: Cause a change in someone or something
- Afford: Have enough money to pay for something
- Age: Become older
- Agree: Have the same opinion
- Aid: Help or support
- Aim: Point at a target
- Alarm: Cause someone to feel frightened or worried
- Alert: Warn someone of a danger or problem
- Allow: Permit someone to do something or permit an activity
- Alter: Change something slightly
- Alternate: Switch between two things
- Amaze: Impress someone very much
- Amuse: Make someone laugh or smile
- Analyze: Look at something carefully to understand it
- Announce: Tell people important news officially
- Annoy: Make someone feel slightly angry
- Answer: Respond
- Apologize: Say “I’m sorry”
- Appear: Start to be seen or seem like
- Applaud: Clap your hands or praise something
- Apply: Request a job or put something on a surface
- Appoint: Choose someone for a job or position
- Appreciate: Feel thankful for something
- Approach: Move closer
- Approve: Think something is good or give official permission
- Argue: Disagree
- Arise: Start to happen or exist
- Arrange: Put things in a neat order
- Arrest: Take someone to a police station for breaking the law
- Arrive: Get to the place you were going
- Ask: Request something or try to get information
- Assign: Give someone a specific task or job
- Assist: Help
- Assume: Believe something is true without having proof
- Attach: Become fixed to something or join one thing to another
- Attack: Try to hurt
- Attempt: Try to do something difficult
- Attend: Go to an event
- Attract: Make something or someone want to come closer
- Avoid: Stay away from a person, place, or thing
- Awake: Stop sleeping
- Award: Give a prize or money to someone
My brilliant and thoughtful daughter amazes me every day.
After it stopped raining, a double rainbow appeared.
People often get wiser as they age.
The band announced a world tour with several dates in the US.
Coneflower can attract monarch butterflies to your backyard.
This theater doesn’t allow any food or beverages.
- Several questions arose during the meeting yesterday.
- Several exciting opportunities have arisen in the last year.
- When Sam awoke, the sun shone brightly through the curtains.
- Lucy was awoken by the sound of eggs sizzling on a skillet.
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you spell and conjugate irregular verbs in your writing.
115 advanced verbs that start with A
These verbs that start with A are ideal for leveling up your writing, studying for standardized tests, and expressing complex ideas. They’re common in reading passages and vocabulary questions on language proficiency tests and college entrance exams.
Verbs that start with AB–AC
Test your knowledge of actions like “acquiesce” and “accentuate” with the compilation below.
- Abandon: Stop supporting someone or something
- Abbreviate: Make a word or phrase shorter
- Abhor: Dislike something very much
- Abide: Follow a rule or law or tolerate something
- Abolish: Officially end a law or system
- Abound: Exist in very large numbers
- Absolve: State officially that someone is not guilty
- Abstain: Choose not to do something
- Abstract: Remove or take something away
- Accelerate: Go faster or make something happen sooner
- Accentuate: Make something more noticeable
- Acclimate: Get used to a new climate
- Accommodate: Provide a place to stay or fit someone’s needs
- Accompany: Go somewhere with another person
- Accumulate: Increase in number over time
- Acknowledge: Admit that something is true
- Acquiesce: Accept something without complaining
- Acquire: Get or buy something
- Acquit: Decide in court that someone is not guilty
- Activate: Make something start working
Eduardo accumulated dozens of books while working on his Ph.D.
Two of the committee members abstained from voting.
Verbs that start with AD–AG
Challenge yourself to learn the nuances of verbs like “admonish” and “afflict” as you move through this section.
- Adapt: Change to fit a new situation
- Address: Speak or write to someone directly
- Adhere: Stick firmly to a surface
- Adjoin: Be next to or joined to something
- Adjourn: Pause a meeting
- Administer: Manage or organize something
- Admonish: Warn or criticize someone gently
- Adorn: Decorate something
- Adulterate: Make something lower in quality
- Advert: Refer to something in speaking or writing
- Advocate: Publicly support an idea
- Aerate: Let air into something
- Affiliate: Join a larger group
- Affirm: State clearly that something is true
- Afflict: Cause pain or suffering
- Affront: Insult someone openly
- Aggravate: Make a situation worse
- Aggregate: Put items together into a group
- Agitate: Shake or disturb
- Agonize: Worry a lot about a decision
After agonizing about which apartment to rent, Shari chose an affordable studio.
Verbs that start with AI–AM
As you move through this section, consider how “allocate” and “allot” have similar meanings.
- Ail: Cause someone to feel sick
- Alienate: Make someone feel like they do not belong
- Align: Become consistent or put things in a straight line
- Allege: Say something is true without proof
- Alleviate: Make pain or a problem less severe
- Allocate: Give a specific amount of money or time
- Allot: Share something out as a task
- Allude: Mention something indirectly
- Allure: Attract or tempt someone
- Amalgamate: Combine two or more things
- Amass: Collect a large amount of something
- Ambush: Attack someone by hiding and waiting
- Ameliorate: Make a bad situation better
- Amend: Change a law or document to improve it
- Amplify: Make a sound louder or make something more intense
- Amputate: Cut off a part of the body
The kitten hid behind the couch and ambushed my ankles as I walked by.
The school allocated thousands of dollars for a new robotics club.
Verbs that start with AN–AP
As you work your way through this list, look for verbs that can also be nouns. For example, “anchor” can be the heavy object that keeps a boat at the shore (noun) or the act of putting the anchor in place (verb).
- Anchor: Keep a ship from moving
- Annex: Take control of another country’s land
- Annihilate: Destroy something completely
- Annotate: Add short notes to a book
- Annul: State that a contract is no longer legal
- Anoint: Put oil on someone during a ceremony
- Antagonize: Make someone angry or unfriendly
- Anticipate: Expect that something will happen
- Ape: Copy the way someone behaves
- Appall: Make someone feel shocked
- Appease: Give someone what they want to keep them calm
- Append: Add something to the end of a document
- Apportion: Divide something among several people
- Appraise: Judge the value or quality of something
- Apprehend: Catch a criminal
- Apprentice: Learn a skill from an expert
- Apprise: Inform someone about something
- Appropriate: Take something without permission
- Approximate: Estimate a number
Michael apprenticed with a world-renowned pastry chef in Denmark.
Verbs that start with AR–AS
This list will help you learn about the differences between verbs like “articulate,” “ascertain,” and “assuage.”
- Arbitrate: Help opposing groups agree or stop arguing
- Arch: Form a curved shape
- Archive: Store historical documents
- Arm: Provide someone with weapons
- Arouse: Cause a feeling or reaction
- Arraign: Bring someone to court to state charges
- Array: Arrange things in an organized way
- Articulate: Communicate clearly
- Ascend: Move up
- Ascertain: Find out the true facts
- Ascribe: Believe that something was caused by a specific thing
- Aspire: Have a strong wish to achieve something
- Assail: Attack someone violently
- Assassinate: Kill a famous person
- Assault: Attack someone suddenly
- Assemble: Gather together in a group
- Assent: Agree to a suggestion
- Assert: State something strongly
- Assess: Judge the quality or value of something
- Assimilate: Become part of a group
- Associate: Connect two or more people, ideas, or things
- Assuage: Make an unpleasant feeling less strong
- Astonish: Surprise someone very much
- Astound: Shock or greatly surprise someone
The museum archived the artist’s letters to his wife.
Verbs that start with AT–AW
Finish your study of verbs that start with A by learning “augment,” “authenticate,” and more.
- Atone: Do something good to show you are sorry
- Attain: Reach a goal after effort
- Attenuate: Make something weaker or thinner
- Attest: State that something is true
- Attribute: Believe that something is the result of a specific cause
- Auction: Sell something to the highest bidder
- Audit: Officially examine records
- Augment: Increase the size or value of something
- Authenticate: Prove that something is real
- Author: Write a book or report
- Authorize: Give official permission
- Avail: Use something to help yourself
- Avenge: Punish someone who hurt you
- Avert: Prevent something bad from happening
- Avow: State something publicly
- Await: Wait for something to happen
Harry attained a 4.0 through hard work and consistent attendance.
Frequently asked questions about verbs that start with A
- What are some verbs with the letter A?
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Verbs with the letter A fall into two categories:
- Verbs that start with A: Act, abbreviate, accelerate, adore, admire, appear, arrive, (and over 100 other verbs)
- Verbs that include the letter A: Dance, talk, practice, save, watch (and many more)
QuillBot’s AI Chat can show you lists of verbs in specific categories and help you study them with example sentences.
- Is are an action verb?
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“Are” is not an action verb. It’s a form of the “be” verb, which can play these roles:
- A linking verb that connects the subject to another noun (e.g., “Sam and Delia are great neighbors.”)
- A stative verb that describes the subject’s state or condition (e.g., “My neighbors are friendly.”)
- An auxiliary verb (aka helping verb) that goes with an action verb in the present continuous verb tense (e.g., “The neighbors are growing tomatoes.”)
When you’re writing with “are” or other verbs that start with A, QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you avoid errors.
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Routh, N. (2026, January 19). 175 Verbs That Start With A | Definitions, Examples & Study Tips. Quillbot. Retrieved January 22, 2026, from https://quillbot.com/blog/word-finder/verbs-that-start-with-a/
