abdominal
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
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.
Abdominal obesity was defined as a waist circumference greater than 102 centimeters for men and 88 centimeters for women.
From Science Daily • Mar. 27, 2026
Abdominal fat disrupts how the body uses insulin, making it harder to control blood sugar.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2025
Abdominal pain and diarrhea can also occur with high intakes of prebiotics.
From Salon • Feb. 20, 2024
Abdominal pain and fever — most of the time that’s going to be appendicitis or maybe diverticulitis.
From New York Times • Oct. 28, 2021
Finally recognizing that words can never hurt, but sticks and stones can sure break bones, they invented the Abdominal Snowman.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
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.
