ATE is a 3 letter word that starts with A.

1. \Ate\ (?; 277),
   the preterit of {Eat}.
   

2. \A"te\, n. [Gr. ?.] (Greek. Myth.)
   The goddess of mischievous folly; also, in later poets, the
   goddess of vengeance.
   

3. \-ate\ [From the L. suffix -atus, the past participle
   ending of verbs of the 1st conj.]
   1. As an ending of participles or participial adjectives it
      is equivalent to -ed; as, situate or situated; animate or
      animated.
   2. As the ending of a verb, it means to make, to cause, to
      act, etc.; as, to propitiate (to make propitious); to
      animate (to give life to).
   3. As a noun suffix, it marks the agent; as, curate,
      delegate. It also sometimes marks the office or dignity;
      as, tribunate.
   4. In chemistry it is used to denote the salts formed from
      those acids whose names end -ic (excepting binary or
      halogen acids); as, sulphate from sulphuric acid, nitrate
      from nitric acid, etc. It is also used in the case of
      certain basic salts.