Ab
noun
Av.
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Ab
1 American
[ahb, ahv]
/ ɑb, ɑv /
noun
AB
3
American
abbreviation
-
Nautical. able seaman.
-
U.S. Air Force. Airman Basic.
-
Alberta, Canada (approved for postal use).
-
antiballistic; antiballistic missile.
AB
4
American
Symbol, Physiology.
ab-
5
American
ab.
6
American
abbreviation
-
about.
-
Baseball. (times) at bat.
A.B.
7
American
abbreviation
A.B.
8
American
AB
1
British
abbreviation
-
Also: a.b.. able-bodied seaman
-
(in the US) Bachelor of Arts
-
(esp in postal addresses) Alberta (Canada)
symbol
Ab
2
British
/ æb /
noun
ab-
3
British
prefix
ab-
4
British
prefix
Etymology
Origin of ab-5
< Latin ab (preposition and prefix) from, away, cognate with Greek apó, Sanskrit ápa, German ab, English of 1, off
Origin of A.B.7
< New Latin, Medieval Latin Artium Baccalaureus
Explanation
An ab is a stomach, or abdominal, muscle. Doing sit ups and crunches will help you tone your abs. Ab is shorthand for abdominal, which comes from the Latin abdomen, "belly," and it's a common name for what's formally known as the rectus abdominus muscle. Your abs run up and down the front of your torso, on either side of your belly button. In extremely fit or muscly people with little body fat, you can actually see how the abs are separated into several sections, the so-called "six-pack."
Vocabulary lists containing ab
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:
Over billions of years, Epsilon Indi Ab is expected to cool and eventually become even colder than Jupiter.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 2026
Some flirted only briefly with Ab Ex ideas before moving on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 28, 2026
So it felt like Ab to Abby was a very cute jump.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2025
The "narcissism-powered dynamic" between Amanda and her increasingly good-hearted mother, Felicity, is, she noted, "played with Ab Fab levels of relish by Joanna Lumley".
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2025
No one knew why he was called Ab Sheehan, The Abbot, but all Limerick loved him.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
The bill, AB 2319, is aimed at supporting the industry’s editors, sound mixers, composers and visual effects artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
In October 2025, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 316, barring any defendant who developed, modified or used an AI system from asserting that the AI autonomously caused the harm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
“I introduced AB 2440 to address strong concerns raised by arts-education advocates and school districts,” Muratsuchi said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Billionaire U.S. investor Kenneth Dart has raised his stake in Swedish gaming group Evolution AB to around 30.02%, passing the threshold that requires the launch of a mandatory takeover offer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Any AB and NAB naturals out there who want to share their regimen?
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
It is altogether too easy to allow one's sense of the ab- surdity of a good many of its episodes to cloud one's perception of the beauty underlying them.
From Time Magazine Archive
It appears as a-, ab-, ac-, ad-, af-, ag-, al-, an-, ap-, ar-, as-, at-, as in achieve, abbreviate, accede, admire, affix, aggregate, allot, annex, approve, arrive, assign, attract.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
And, ere the first The skates were Of their brief ab- Was left within the faint gleam of day, safely stowed away; sence not a trace dusty place.
From The Brownies: Their Book by Palmer Cox
God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab- 107:6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.
From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
Falsten holds little communication with any of us, but remains ab- sorbed in his calculations, and amuses himself by tracing mechanical diagrams with ground-plan, section, elevation, all complete.
From The Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne
In the third edition it was reprinted at the end of the Stans puer ad Mensam by Wynkin de Worde ab. 1501-1510.
From Caxton's Book of Curtesye by Frederick James Furnivall
"Our focus is on crop improvement, pest and disease surveillance, soil management, capacity building, and technology transfer related to cardamom," says A.B.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2025
“We’re in our toddler, young juvenile phase, of trying to navigate things with the industry,” said Felicia A.B.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
The great Andre Braugher was originally cast as the character A.B.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2025
The game involved a professional boxer, identified only as A.B.,
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
He planned to complete work for an A.B. degree and then enter law school.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
