abdominal
Americanadjective
noun
-
abdominals
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of abdominal
Explanation
Anything abdominal relates to the midsection of your body, just below your chest and above your pelvis. Abdominal muscles are sometimes called “abs” and they’re the muscles in your abdomen. All abdominal things relate to the belly area. If your stomach hurts, you have abdominal pain. Sit-ups are abdominal exercises. Do enough sit-ups and you'll have washboard abs because the rippled muscles look like, well, a washboard. Any stomach surgery is a type of abdominal surgery. Sometimes abdominal is used as a noun that’s short for abdominal muscle.
Vocabulary lists containing abdominal
Turtles All the Way Down
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The Hot Zone
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Stuart Little
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Ectopic pregnancy symptoms often begin with abdominal pain and bleeding, which send women to emergency rooms.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
Some emergency-response experts express concern that people will waste precious minutes grabbing an anti-choking device when they should be doing back blows, the Heimlich maneuver—officially known as abdominal thrusts—or CPR.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
She added: "The focus is on women who are recovering from vaginal delivery. It's not geared towards women who are recovering from major abdominal surgery."
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
In 1982, abdominal pain and bleeding forced her to cancel a tour, and in 1984 she had a partial hysterectomy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
He often doubled over from abdominal pain, he vomited constantly, and the treatments soon left him confined to a wheelchair.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
For competitive runners, this often boils down to sinewy legs and defined abdominals.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2024
After absorbing his introduction to the concept of situps, I followed along as nameless ladies in shiny leotards instructed me to reach, crunch and tune into my abdominals, my ankles wrapped in weights.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2022
Hwang, who treats people with pelvic floor issues, said she addresses tense abdominals in her patients “on a regular basis.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 12, 2021
Women tend to be more flexible and sometimes overextend their low backs, and we just need to do a little maintenance to keep our low abdominals, low back, and pelvic floor strong and working together.
From Slate ● May 13, 2020
She’ll have to make sure to add some crunches and leg lifts to strengthen her abdominals and her glutes.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
