- Abẹ́òkúta(under the rock)
- City founded around 1830 by Ẹ̀gbá refugees under Ṣódẹkẹ́ during the nineteenth-century wars, and an early centre of mission activity and Yorùbá print. History. [S4]
- àbíkú(one born to die)
- A child understood to be born repeatedly to the same mother and to die in infancy each time, returning rather than being a new person. A concept with an associated body of naming practice, ritual and poetry, and a subject of Yorùbá literature. Cosmology, social, language. [S4]
- adé(crown)
- The beaded crown of a Yorùbá ọba, whose right to wear it is the marker of descent from Odùduwà and of the town's standing. Arts, social. [S4]
- àdìrẹ
- Yorùbá resist-dyed indigo cloth, produced principally by women, with named patterns and regional styles. Arts. [S4]
- Agùdà
- Yorùbá returnees from Brazil and Cuba, largely Catholic, who settled in Lagos and elsewhere from the mid-nineteenth century and shaped its architecture, cuisine and music. History, diaspora. [S4]
- àjẹ́
- Spiritual power associated particularly with certain women, ambivalent rather than simply malevolent, and connected with the mothers, with market authority and with social control. Usually translated "witchcraft," which imports the European witch-hunt apparatus and is a poor rendering. Cosmology, social, foundations. [S4]
- Àjàlá
- The potter of ọ̀run who moulds the orí that people choose before birth, portrayed as sometimes careless and producing flawed heads, which is the tradition's explanation of why fortunes vary so drastically. Cosmology. [S4]
- Aláàfin(owner of the palace)
- The ruler of Ọ̀yọ́, constitutionally constrained by the Ọ̀yọ́ Mesì, who could compel his death. History, social. [S4]
- Aláàrìnjó
- The Yorùbá travelling masquerade theatre tradition, ancestor of the twentieth-century Yorùbá professional theatre and film. Arts. [S4]
- Aládùrà(owners of prayer)
- The independent Yorùbá churches emerging from the 1920s, built on prayer, prophecy, dreams and healing in a Yorùbá idiom. History. [S4]
- àṣẹ
- The power by which things are brought into effect, present in speech, in persons, in objects and in the òrìṣà, deriving from Ọlọ́dùmarè. Also said at the end of a prayer, meaning let it be so, which is the same concept applied to the utterance. Rendered aché in Cuba and axé in Brazil. Cosmology, diaspora. [S4]
- Awùjalẹ̀
- The ruler of Ijẹ̀bú-Òde. History, social. [S4]
- ayé(the world)
- The visible domain of the living, paired with ọ̀run as the two halves of the cosmos. Cosmology. [S4]
- Àyàn
- The òrìṣà of drumming, and the lineage name element carried by drumming families: Àyànléke, Àyàntúndé, Àyàngalú. Arts, òrìṣà. [S4]
- àtúnwáyé(coming to the world again)
- Reincarnation within the lineage, the understanding that ancestors return in descendants, expressed in names such as Babátúndé and Ìyábọ̀. Cosmology, social. [S4]