ad
noun
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ad
1 American
[ad]
/ æd /
ad
2
American
[ad]
/ æd /
noun
Tennis.
-
ad in, the advantage being scored by the server.
-
ad out, the advantage being scored by the receiver.
ad
3
American
[ad]
/ æd /
preposition
ad-
4
American
-ad
5
American
-
a suffix occurring in loanwords from Greek denoting a group or unit comprising a certain number, sometimes of years: dyad; triad .
-
a suffix meaning “derived from,” “related to,” “concerned with,” “associated with” (oread ), introduced in loanwords from Greek (Olympiad; oread ), used sporadically in imitation of Greek models, as Dunciad , after Iliad .
-ad
6
American
-ad
7
American
ad.
8
American
abbreviation
-
adverb.
-
advertisement.
a.d.
9
American
Or
A.D.
abbreviation
a.d.
10
American
abbreviation
a.d.
11
American
abbreviation
-
after date.
-
autograph document.
A.D.
12
American
AD
1
British
abbreviation
-
anno Domini Compare BC
70 ad
-
military active duty
-
military air defence
-
Dame of the Order of Australia
-ad
2
British
suffix
-
a group or unit (having so many parts or members)
triad
-
an epic poem concerning (the subject indicated by the stem)
Dunciad
ad-
3
British
prefix
-
to; towards
adsorb
adverb
-
near; next to
adrenal
-ad
4
British
suffix
ad
5
British
/ æd /
noun
ad
6
British
/ æd /
noun
ad
7
British
abbreviation
Usage
Because anno Domini means “in the year of the Lord,” its abbreviation a.d. was originally placed before rather than after a date: The Roman conquest of Britain began in a.d. 43 (or began a.d. 43). In edited writing, it is still usually placed before the date. But, by analogy with the position of b.c. “before Christ,” which always appears after a date ( Caesar was assassinated in 44 b.c. ), a.d. is also frequently found after the date in all types of writing, including historical works: The Roman emperor Claudius I lived from 10 b.c. to 54 a.d. Despite its literal meaning, a.d. is also used to designate centuries, being placed after the specified century: the second century a.d.
In strict usage, ad is only employed with specific years: he died in 1621 ad , but he died in the 17th century (and not the 17th century ad ). Formerly the practice was to write ad preceding the date ( ad 1621 ), and it is also strictly correct to omit in when ad is used, since this is already contained in the meaning of the Latin anno Domini (in the year of Our Lord), but this is no longer general practice. bc is used with both specific dates and indications of the period: Heraclitus was born about 540 bc ; the battle took place in the 4th century bc
Etymology
Origin of ad1
First recorded in 1795–1800; by shortening
Origin of ad2
First recorded in 1915–20; by shortening
Origin of ad3
From Latin
Origin of ad-4
< Latin ad, ad- (preposition and prefix) to, toward, at, about; cognate with at 1
Origin of -ad5
Greek -ad- (stem of -as ), specialization of feminine adjective-forming suffix, often used substantively
Origin of -ad7
From the Latin word ad toward, anomalously suffixed to the noun; introduced as a suffix by Scottish anatomist John Barclay (1758–1826) in 1803
Origin of a.d.9
From Latin annō Dominī
Origin of a.d.10
From Latin ante diem
Explanation
An ad is a commercial or a print promotion for some product or service. In other words, an ad is an advertisement. When a company uses print or broadcasting — newspapers, magazines, the Internet, or television, for example — to attempt to sell more of something, it's an ad. Though the word ad is an informal shortened form of advertisement, it's become more commonly used than the original. Those in the business of advertising have objected to this slang form ever since it was first used, around 1840.
Vocabulary lists containing ad
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:
Talarico posted another record quarter amid Paxton’s SLF-powered ad surge, hauling in $64 million between July and September — a third-quarter record among all U.S.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
Overall, the Ohio Senate race is ranking as the most expensive general-election contest this year, with a total of $422.6 million in past and future ad reservations, according to AdImpact.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Perimenopause’s journey from little-understood phase before menopause to the subject of every ad on social media for women of a certain age was quick—and impossible to imagine without the internet.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
Meta’s apps run on iPhones, giving Apple power over how Meta operates—leverage it used in 2021 to limit the company’s ability to track people for ad targeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
There wasn’t an article, just what looked like a half-page ad.
From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya
What’s more, the Cardinals are surging and better with ad- dition of Zach Ertz.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2021
The new party was founded to “boldly ad- dress their issues, the war in Vietnam, the militarization of society, the problems of the poor, and the destruction of the environment,” the party’s website proclaims.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2015
We ’d be fixing the economy, ad- dressing national security issues, and improving education.
From MSNBC ● Sep. 9, 2014
He must be backstage in case something goes wrong and he has to ad- lib.
From BusinessWeek ● Feb. 22, 2012
NOTE.—The forms ac-, af-, etc., are euphonic variations of ad-, and follow generally the rule that the final consonant of the prefix assimilates to the initial letter of the root.
From New Word-Analysis by William Swinton
Gay = gaj‑a; gloomy = malgaja; suf. -ad denotes continuance.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Walter John Clark
To roll = rul‑i; suf. -ad denotes continuance. 9Weariness.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Walter John Clark
To make sick = naŭz‑i; -ad denotes continuation. 8Tired of.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Walter John Clark
“Not a single ad. It looks like the old Pinterest. You’re welcome,” she says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The banner, which uses the neo-fascist group‘s signature colors, also references the hot-button American Eagle ad. “She has the best blue genes,” the banner says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025
“It’s from an old Budweiser ad. Yeah. It reminds me of that other famous Churchill quote, ‘Wazzzuuuuuuup?’”
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2024
“We hear you today. We must hear you tomorrow. There are less than 8 million Jewish people in this country. Fewer than are watching this ad. They need you to add your voice.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2022
“It’s a lot like that ad. The one we found on the ground. You remember, Ruth?”
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
One Ennion jug, now fragmentary, survived a fire during the Roman capture of Jerusalem in a.d.
From Architectural Digest ● Dec. 11, 2014
The first exhibit of ancient glass in the New York museum’s history, “Ennion: Master of Roman Glass” features pieces dating from the early 1st century a.d. by Ennion, the era’'s preeminent maker of mold-blown glass.
From Architectural Digest ● Dec. 11, 2014
Beginning in the late ninth or early tenth century a.d., public monuments in Chichen Itza deemphasized the king, changing from official narratives of regal actions to generalized, nontextual images of religion, commerce, and war.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Some time around 1000 a.d., the Indian agricultural trinity of maize, beans, and squash appeared in the area.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Cahokia, biggest of all, was preeminent from about 950 to about 1250 a.d.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
In 1960, Science, one of the world’s leading science journals, published an article with an unambiguous title: Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Plinian eruptions represent the most explosive class of volcanic eruptions and are named after Pliny the Elder, who described the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
There was enough of a resurgence in the 1970s to merit a new term, the “directorial mode,” coined by critic A.D.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Its dominant object, a bronze sculpture of the god Veiovis, dates to the first century A.D., after Etruscans became Roman citizens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Until 1946, Japanese schools taught a myth of Japanese history based on the earliest Japanese chronicles of A.D.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Among the conditions examined, the neurodegenerative disorders AD and MCI showed the strongest associations with higher PAD values, suggesting the greatest degree of accelerated brain aging.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2026
"A whole system was built around this temple," which dates to between the first century BC and the second century AD, said Myriam Ziade, regional antiquities official with the culture ministry.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
Vesuvius in AD 79, he wasn’t just horrified, he was mesmerized, even excited; amid all that death it felt like the past was alive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Eryn From Brookeborough in County Fermanagh, previously told BBC News NI she doesn't visit the cinema often, as the nearby IMC in Enniskillen does not offer AD headsets.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
On January 1 in 2 AD, how many years has it been since he was born?
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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