176 symbols beginning with A. Each one is read four ways, and every source is named so you can check it.
- A building collapsingA building coming down in a dream tends to be about structure rather than about rubble: something that was holding a shape has stopped, and the dre...
- AbbeyAn abbey in a dream tends to be about withdrawal rather than belief: a place built so that a life could be lived on different terms from everyone e...
- A dead relative aliveDreaming that someone who has died is alive again is among the most vivid and most disorienting dreams people report. It is common after a loss, an...
- AbortionA dream of abortion often reflects feelings about a difficult choice, an ending, or something set aside, and carries no judgment.
- AbscessAn abscess is something the body has walled off rather than dealt with, and dreams tend to use exactly that: a problem contained but not resolved.
- Aging rapidlySeeing yourself suddenly old, usually in a mirror, is a short and strongly remembered dream. It tends to arrive around birthdays and endings rather...
- AbuseDreams of being harmed by someone are reported by people who have been harmed and by people who have not, and a dream on its own tells you nothing...
- ApologizingDreaming of apologising often reflects a wish to repair something, or a regret you have been holding longer than you meant to.
- AbyssAn abyss often pictures a fear of the unknown depths, a void, or the dread of falling into something with no clear bottom.
- ArguingDreaming of arguing often plays out an unresolved tension, a disagreement or feeling you have not been able to voice in waking life.
- AcademyAn academy in a dream is instruction with a hierarchy attached, and dreamers commonly report arriving without knowing which class they belong to.
- AcceleratorA pedal that only makes things go faster is a narrow dream object, and the reported detail is usually that it is stuck or that the dreamer cannot l...
- AccidentAn accident dream is usually reported for its timing rather than its damage, and the dreamer tends to remember the second before rather than the im...
- AccompliceAn accomplice in a dream is somebody who agreed, and the dream usually cares less about the act than about the fact that the dreamer was not alone.
- AccordionAn accordion is an instrument you wear and squeeze, and dreams tend to notice the breathing motion as much as the sound.
- AchievementDreams of having achieved something tend to be flat rather than triumphant, and the reported feeling is often anticlimax: the thing is done and not...
- AcidAcid in a dream is harm that continues after contact, and the fear reported is usually about not being able to stop it rather than about the burn.
- AcornAn acorn often stands for great potential held in small form, the whole oak folded into a seed, promise that needs only time.
- AcquaintanceSomeone you barely know appearing in a dream is more common than a close friend appearing, and the puzzle is usually why the dream chose them.
- AcquittalBeing cleared in a dream is rarely the relief it should be, and the reported detail is usually that nobody's opinion has changed.
- AcrobatAn acrobat is a body doing something it should not be able to, and dreams tend to be about the watching: the dreamer is nearly always below.
- ActorAn actor in a dream often represents the roles you play, the face you show others, or a wish to be seen, rather than a literal stage.
- AcupunctureNeedles placed deliberately in the body make an unusual dream image: harm and treatment doing the same thing, and the dreamer usually consented.
- Adam and EveThe first couple in a dream tends to be less about religion than about beginnings and blame: a garden, a rule, and the moment after it is broken.
- AddictionDreams about using are common in recovery and can be distressing out of proportion to their content. They are widely reported and are not a relapse.
- AddressAn address in a dream is a place reduced to a code, and dreamers commonly report that the numbers will not stay still or that they cannot find the...
- AdversaryAn adversary in a dream is somebody set against the dreamer, and the recurring detail is that they are frequently competent, reasonable, and not ob...
- AdvertisementAn advertisement in a dream is language trying to sell you something, and dreamers frequently report that the message will not resolve into words.
- AdvisorAn advisor in a dream is authority that arrives without being asked for, and dreamers often report being unable to hear or follow what is said.
- AerobicsExercising in a class in a dream tends to be about being out of step: the reported detail is usually that everyone else knows the routine.
- AerosolA can that turns liquid into a cloud is a small industrial magic, and dreams tend to notice the hiss and the loss of control over where it goes.
- AfroHair worn in a way that declares something is a particular kind of dream image: the dreamer is usually being looked at, and often knows exactly why.
- AgeBeing a different age in a dream is common and rarely commented on inside the dream: the dreamer is simply eight, or seventy, and the world accommo...
- AgingAging in a dream often reflects how you feel about time passing, change, or a stage of life rather than your actual years.
- AirAir is the one element you are always inside, and dreams tend to notice it only when it changes: too thin, too thick, or suddenly absent.
- AirplaneAn airplane often pictures ambition, escape, or a major transition, the wish to rise above and travel far, with takeoff and landing as the risky th...
- AirportAn airport often marks a point of transition and decision, a threshold between where you are and where you are bound.
- AlchemyAlchemy in a dream is transformation with a method attached, and the method usually will not hold still: dreamers report instructions they cannot f...
- AlcoholDrinking in a dream is usually about loosening rather than about drink, and what people report is the change in themselves rather than the taste.
- AlienAn alien often pictures what feels foreign or beyond your grasp, whether a part of yourself, another person, or a situation you cannot read.
- AlphabetLetters in a dream tend to misbehave: dreamers commonly report that text will not hold still, and an alphabet dream is often about not being able t...
- AltarAn altar usually pictures a place where something is given up on purpose: the point at which a cost is paid rather than avoided.
- AmbulanceAn ambulance often pictures urgency and care, a call for help arriving fast when something feels in crisis.
- AmbushAn ambush is a threat that was already in place, and the dream tends to be about the moment of recognising that rather than about the danger.
- AmmunitionAmmunition in a dream is potential rather than event, and the reported detail is nearly always the count: too little, or more than the dreamer can...
- AmputationAn amputation or missing limb often points to loss and the fear of being diminished, the cutting away of some capacity, and the work of carrying on...
- AmuletAn amulet is protection you can carry, and dreams tend to be about whether it is still there: the reported detail is usually losing it.
- Amusement parkA fairground in a dream is pleasure with machinery under it, and the reported feeling swings widely: the same setting produces delight and dread de...
- AnacondaA very large constricting snake in a dream tends to be about pressure rather than about bite: the fear reported is being held rather than being str...
- AnalystA figure whose job is to interpret you makes a self-referential dream object, and dreamers often report being unable to say anything useful to them.
- AncestorAn ancestor in a dream often represents inherited values, roots, or a part of your own past that still shapes you, rather than a literal message fr...
- AnchorAn anchor often stands for what holds you steady or what keeps you from moving, so it helps to ask whether it felt like security or a weight you co...
- AngelAn angel often brings reassurance, guidance, or a sense of protection, a message that you are not alone with what you face.
- AngerAnger in a dream often points to a boundary that feels crossed or a frustration you have not voiced, and the target in the dream is worth weighing...
- AnimeDreaming in an animated style is reported often enough by people who watch a lot of it, and the interesting part is usually that the dreamer knew t...
- AnimosityWaking with a strong dislike for somebody you dreamt about is a common and uncomfortable experience, and the feeling frequently outlasts the dream.
- AnkhA symbol that means life, worn as an object, is an unusual dream item: dreamers often report knowing what it means without being able to say how.
- AnkleAn ankle often points to support and balance, the small joint that carries you, and sometimes to a vulnerable point where a step could go wrong.
- AnkletAn ornament worn where it can be heard as much as seen makes an unusual dream object, and the reported detail is often the sound.
- AnniversaryAn anniversary in a dream often points to memory, the marking of time, or feelings about a bond or an event that still matters.
- AnnoyanceA dream that is not frightening but simply irritating, where something will not work and nobody will help, is more commonly reported than the drama...
- AntAn ant often stands for industry and cooperation, or for many small pressures and tasks that swarm together into something larger.
- AnteaterAn animal built for one narrow task makes an odd dream figure, and the reported feeling is usually curiosity rather than fear.
- AntelopeAn antelope often stands for grace under pressure, swift escape, or a keen alertness that keeps you light on your feet.
- AntennaAn antenna is an instrument for receiving something not otherwise present, and dreams tend to care about reception: what is coming through, and whe...
- AnthillAn anthill is a society you can hold in your hand, and dreams tend to be about scale: the dreamer is enormous, or has become very small.
- AntibioticsMedicine that works slowly and must be finished makes an odd dream object, and the reported anxiety is usually about the course rather than the ill...
- AntifreezeA liquid that is brightly coloured, sweet, and lethal is an unusual dream object, and the unease reported usually attaches to the colour.
- AnusThe body part turns up in dreams far less often than the anxiety about it does, and most reports are about exposure or loss of control rather than...
- AnvilAn anvil is the thing that does not move while something else is shaped, and dreams tend to use it for endurance rather than for the making.
- AnxietyAnxiety in a dream usually mirrors a worry the mind is still working over, and naming what the unease points to in waking life is often more useful...
- ApartmentAn apartment often pictures a stage of independent life, your own space within a larger world, and how settled or temporary it feels.
- ApathyApathy in a dream usually reflects a loss of caring or pull, and noticing what you no longer reached for can point to where energy has gone quiet.
- ApocalypseEnd-of-the-world dreams are more common than their scale suggests, and they are often reported as oddly calm: the dreamer is usually a witness rath...
- AppleAn apple often carries temptation, knowledge, or health, the fruit weighted with more meaning than its size suggests.
- AppointmentAn appointment in a dream is a fixed point the dreamer is usually failing to reach, and the reported detail is often that they do not know what it...
- AquariumAn aquarium often points to feelings viewed at a safe distance, the depths of emotion held behind glass where you can watch but not be swept away.
- ArchAn arch holds itself up by pressing against itself, and dreams tend to use it as a way through that is also a frame: you pass under it and you are...
- ArmadilloAn armadillo often stands for self-protection, the wish to curl away from threat, or a guarded boundary you have drawn around something tender.
- ArmourArmour is protection you have to carry, and dreams tend to notice the weight: the reported detail is usually that it is difficult to move in or imp...
- Armoured carA vehicle built to carry money through a hostile world makes an obvious dream object, and the reported detail is usually that the dreamer could not...
- ArmsArms often picture strength, capability, and reach, your power to act, to hold, or to embrace.
- ArrowAn arrow is intention travelling, and dreams tend to be about the aim rather than the wound: who loosed it, and whether the dreamer was the target.
- ArsonFire set on purpose is a different dream from fire that happens, and dreams tend to care about the intention: whether the dreamer lit it, and wheth...
- Art galleryA gallery is a room built for looking, and dreams tend to use that: the pictures change, or will not resolve, or the dreamer is in one of them.
- ArtichokeA vegetable that has to be dismantled to be eaten makes a specific dream object, and the reported detail is usually the labour or the heart at the...
- ArtistAn artist in a dream often represents your own creative side, the urge to make or express something, rather than a literal painting.
- ArtworkDreaming of a picture, a piece or a whole body of work is usually reported with unusual clarity, and dreamers often remember the artwork better tha...
- AsbestosA material that was considered safe and turned out not to be makes a distinctive dream object: the danger is invisible, historical and already inha...
- AshAsh often pictures what remains after fire, an ending, the cold trace of something spent, though it can also be the ground from which new growth co...
- AshesAshes in a dream often stand for what remains after an ending, a mix of grief and the chance to begin again from what is left.
- AsteroidAn asteroid often stands for a sudden threat from outside, a piece of trouble hurtling toward you with little warning.
- AsthmaBreathlessness in a dream is one of the images most likely to have a physical cause, and it deserves saying first: the body writes this one directly.
- AthleteAn athlete in a dream is a body trained for one thing, and dreamers most often report either being one unexpectedly or watching one and knowing the...
- AtmosphereAtmosphere often stands for the protective layer around your life, the climate of mood and pressure you live and breathe within.
- Atomic bombA dream of nuclear destruction is reported far more widely than any personal experience of it could explain, and it is one of the clearest cases of...
- AtticAn attic often pictures the higher mind, memory, and the past stored overhead, ideas and old things kept above daily life.
- AuctionAn auction turns value into a public contest, and dreams tend to be about the bidding rather than the object: the dreamer is usually short of money...
- AudienceAn audience in a dream turns whatever is happening into a performance, and the dreamer is usually unprepared. The watching is nearly always the sub...
- AuditionAn audition is judgement compressed into minutes, and it produces one of the most reliably anxious dreams there is: the dreamer is usually unprepar...
- AuditoriumA hall built for many people to face one direction makes a strong dream setting, and the reported detail is usually how full or empty it is.
- AugustA month named in a dream is unusually specific, and August tends to carry heat, emptiness and the sense of a year at its turning point.
- AuntAn aunt usually stands for a quality you associate with her, such as warmth, guidance, or a second kind of mothering, rather than the literal relat...
- AuroraThe aurora often stands for wonder and a sense of something rare and beautiful, a glimpse of the uncanny in a calm sky.
- AustraliaA country that appears in dreams as far away rather than as itself is doing a particular job, and dreamers usually report the distance rather than...
- AutopsyA dream of a body being examined is disturbing in a particular way: the person is being looked into rather than mourned, and the dreamer is usually...
- AutumnAutumn in a dream tends to arrive as a quality of light rather than as a season, and the reported feeling is usually neither happy nor sad but some...
- AvalancheAn avalanche usually points to a sudden overwhelming force, a buildup that breaks loose all at once and sweeps over everything below.
- AvenueAn avenue is a road made formal by what lines it, and dreams tend to use the length: the destination is visible and does not get closer.
- AviaryA building full of birds is flight enclosed, and dreams tend to feel the contradiction: creatures built to leave, kept in a room.
- AvocadoA fruit that is mostly stone, and edible for about a day, is an oddly specific dream object, and the reported detail is usually ripeness.
- AwakeningWaking inside a dream, or dreaming of the moment of waking, is disorienting in a way other dreams are not, because the ordinariness is the effect.
- AwardAn award in a dream is recognition arriving from outside, and the reported feeling is often not pleasure but exposure or doubt about deserving it.
- AxeAn axe often points to a decisive cut, clearing away or cutting down, so it helps to ask what you meant to sever and whether it felt like power or...
- AdamantAdamant was a substance before it was an attitude, and a dreamer who uses the word now almost always means a person who would not be moved.
- AgateA banded stone that shows its own history in stripes, and one of the few gems people still pick up off a beach rather than buy.
- AlabasterA soft white stone that glows when light passes through it, used for tomb effigies and for jars meant to hold something precious.
- Alarm bellA bell rung to move people, and in dreams it very often rings without producing any of the urgency it should.
- AlbumEither a record or a book of blank pages waiting to be filled by other people, and the dream usually turns on which pages are empty.
- AlleyThe back of a street rather than the front of one, and dreamers describe alleys as either a shortcut or a trap with very little in between.
- AlloyTwo metals made into one that neither could be alone, and the word carries a faint accusation of dilution it does not deserve.
- AmethystPurple quartz, cheap since large deposits were found in Brazil, and still the stone people reach for when they want something to mean calm.
- ApronWorn to keep the work off the clothes, which means it marks the wearer as the one doing the work rather than the one being served.
- ArchitectThe person who decides what a building will be before it exists, and in dreams frequently the one being blamed for a room that will not work.
- AspA small snake carrying an enormous amount of borrowed meaning, almost all of it arriving through one death that may not have happened that way.
- AsparagusA vegetable with a very short season and a well-known effect on the smell of urine, which is the fact most dreamers actually know about it.
- AirbagA device that saves you by hitting you, deployed by a small controlled explosion in less time than it takes to blink.
- Air ventA hole in a building that has to be there, and which for that reason connects rooms that were never meant to be connected.
- AisleA gap left deliberately so that people can move through a room, and the only piece of empty floor a building is designed around.
- ApostleOne of a named group chosen for a task, and a word that has left religion entirely to mean anybody who spreads a conviction.
- Artificial limbA made part of a body, which for the person using it is equipment rather than tragedy, whatever a dream may be doing with it.
- Astral travelThe experience of seeming to leave the body and move about, which is genuinely reported, genuinely striking, and has an explanation.
- Armed menA group whose weapons are the only thing you know about them, which is exactly what makes the sight frightening.
- ArbourA frame built for a plant to cover, which means it is a structure designed to be hidden by the thing it holds up.
- AlderThe tree that grows in wet ground and turns red when cut, and whose timber hardens rather than rots underwater.
- AspenThe tree whose leaves move when there is no wind, which is a real property of the leaf stalk and not a superstition.
- ApothecaryA dispenser from a wall of jars, trusted with the difference between the dose that treats and the dose that kills.
- AbsenceA dream where the important thing is what is not there, and the dreamer knows it is missing without being told.
- AlcoveA recess set back from a room, large enough to stand in and small enough to be missed, which makes it a place to be present without being in the room.
- AlmshouseHousing endowed for the poor by someone dead, usually with their name on it and conditions attached that outlived them.
- AdzeA cutting tool swung toward the user's own feet, which is why it is the tool most associated with skill and with scars.
- AugerA tool that makes a hole by turning rather than striking, pulling itself into the wood and bringing the waste back up behind it.
- AwlA spike for making a small hole in leather or wood without removing anything, so the material closes around what goes through.
- AmphoraA two-handled jar with a pointed base, which cannot stand up on its own and was never meant to.
- AscendingGoing up in a dream, which is reported far more often as effortful than as easy, whatever the dreamer expects.
- AortaThe largest artery, carrying everything out from the heart, and the one vessel where a failure allows no time at all.
- ArteryA vessel carrying blood away from the heart under pressure, which is why arteries are buried deep and veins run near the surface.
- AstronomerA person whose subject is entirely out of reach, who can observe everything and touch none of it.
- AlbatrossA bird that stays at sea for years without landing, and the only animal that has become a word for a burden you cannot put down.
- AnemoneA flower with no scent and papery petals that fall almost at once, named from the word for wind.
- AphidA small sap-sucking insect that can be born already pregnant, so a single one arriving on a plant is an entire population.
- AlmondA nut that flowers before any other tree in the year, and whose bitter kind contains the compound that becomes cyanide.
- AnchovyA small oily fish salted and fermented into a sauce that flavoured an entire empire's cooking and then vanished from it.
- ArmourerA smith who made things to be hit, fitting steel to one particular body so it would turn a blade without stopping the man moving.
- AuctioneerA person who sets no price and speaks fast enough that a room decides what a thing is worth before anyone has time to reconsider.
- ApseThe rounded end of a church, where the building stops going forward and curves round the thing it was built to contain.
- ArcadeA run of arches on columns, which makes a covered walk that is neither inside the building nor out in the street.
- AtriumAn open court at the centre of a building, where the roof is deliberately absent and the weather is let in on purpose.
- ArchipelagoA scatter of islands treated as one place, which means the water between them is part of what holds them together.
- AtollA ring of coral around a lagoon, which is the outline of a volcano that has sunk, drawn by something that grew on it.
- AquamarineA pale blue-green stone in the same family as emerald, differing only in which trace metal happens to be present.
- AmbiguityA situation that supports two readings at once, where the difficulty is not a lack of information but a surplus of fit.
- AnticipationThe state before a thing arrives, which is frequently stronger than the thing and is over the moment it turns up.
- AniseA seed tasting of liquorice, whose name is shared with a wholly unrelated plant from the other side of the world that tastes the same.
- ArchivistSomeone whose main work is deciding what will not be kept, since keeping everything is not possible and never was.
- AluminiumA metal that was once worth more than gold, and is now what a drink can is made of, because somebody worked out how to extract it.
- AntimonyA brittle metal that expands slightly as it cools, which is why it went into type and made printing possible.
- AubergineA nightshade eaten across half the world and long distrusted in Europe, where one of its names meant the mad apple.
- AmaryllisA bulb that flowers on a windowsill with no soil and no roots doing anything, running entirely on what it stored last year.
- AsterA late flower named after a star, which comes out when almost everything else in a garden has finished.
- AzaleaA shrub whose nectar can poison the honey made from it, which is recorded as having disabled an entire Greek army.
- AffidavitA statement sworn rather than spoken, so the person is not present and the oath has to do the work alone.
- AlibiA defence that consists entirely of having been somewhere else, from a Latin word meaning exactly that.
- AssizeA sitting of a travelling court, and also a fixed standard, since the same word governed both the judges and the price of bread.
- AbacusA frame of beads on which an experienced user can outrun a person with a calculator, which was tested and settled publicly.
- ArkA chest for scrolls, and also the boat, and also the box carried through the desert, because the word is simply a container.