Ano

Ano is a common word in Tagalog (Filipino) that functions as the interrogative pronoun meaning "what." It is used to ask questions and can appear alone or as part of a phrase. Examples include Ano ito? ("What is this?") and Ano'ng oras? ("What time is it?"). Beyond asking questions, ano often serves as a discourse marker to seek clarification in conversation.

In other languages that use the Latin alphabet, the same two-letter sequence occurs with different meanings. In Portuguese, ano means "year." In Spanish and Italian, the unaccented form ano is not used for the word "year" and can refer to anatomy: in Spanish and Italian, ano denotes "anus." The correct word for "year" in Spanish is año and in Italian is anno. The presence or absence of diacritics (tilde or double consonant) is important for meaning and correctness.

As an acronym, ANO is used as shorthand in various contexts, standing for different organizations or terms depending on language and field. Its meaning is not fixed and must be inferred from surrounding text.