noun A diacritic added to the Arabic letter alif ا to form ٱ, also called "hamzatu l-waṣli" - هَمْزَةُ الْوَصْلِ (hamzatu l-waṣli) or "alifu l-waṣli" - أَلِفُ الْوَصْلِ (ʔalifu l-waṣli). It denotes elision and is seldom used in practice in fully vocalised Arabic texts, only to highlight that the alif is silent هَمْزَةُ ٱلْوَصْلِ (hamzatu l-waṣli) = هَمْزَةُ الْوَصْلِ (hamzatu l-waṣli).