Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The symbol (@) for the word at, used especially in e-mail addresses to separate the username from the domain name.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the symbol @

Etymologies

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Examples

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Comments

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  • This mark has been revitalized, of course, by IT, so that now it is one of the most essential keys on the keyboard. Despite its rather utilitarian functions in commerce and communications, it is visually rather elegant: @ @ @ @. I was surprised to learn that in Slovene, this mark is named "afna", which is a borrowing from German (Affe) and means originally "monkey". I guess the Slovenes think @ looks like a monkey.

    December 2, 2007

  • It Italian it's called chiocciola or schiocciola meaning snail, either due to the shape or abysmal internet speeds in that country.

    December 2, 2007

  • Wonderful news about Italian for @, Bilby! See _@', the ascii snail.

    December 2, 2007