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  • bc
    bc
    abbreviation
    basso continuo.
  • BC
    BC
    abbreviation
    buoyancy compensator.
  • B/C
    B/C
    bills for collection.
  • b.c.
    b.c.
    abbreviation
    before Christ (used in indicating dates).
  • B.C.
    B.C.
    abbreviation
    Bachelor of Chemistry.

bc

1 American  

abbreviation

  1. Music. basso continuo.

  2. blind copy: used as a notation on the copy of a letter or other document sent to a third person without the addressee's knowledge. Also


BC 2 American  

abbreviation

  1. Scuba Diving. buoyancy compensator.

  2. British Columbia, Canada (approved for postal use).


B/C 3 American  
  1. bills for collection.


b.c. 4 American  
Or B.C.

abbreviation

  1. before Christ (used in indicating dates).


B.C. 5 American  

abbreviation

  1. Bachelor of Chemistry.

  2. Bachelor of Commerce.

  3. bass clarinet.

  4. battery commander.

  5. British Columbia.


BC British  

abbreviation

  1. Also: B.C..  (indicating years numbered back from the supposed year of the birth of Christ) before Christ Compare AD

    in 54 bc Caesar came

  2. British Columbia

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

The abbreviation b.c. “before Christ” is always placed after a date or century: Cleopatra lived from 69 to 30 b.c. The war took place in the first century b.c. See also a.d. 1

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:

“We *want* remain pass less and will continue to wear our man repellent vision helpers, mostly so we can function, but also bc of the bonus Creeper Deterrents. #jeopardy #foureyes,” another wrote.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 30, 2024

“It's also cruel & irrelevant. Anyone who has experienced loss like that can remember images, smells, bit of conversations. The pain is burned into you. Dates blend together bc they're irrelevant.”

From Salon Mar. 12, 2024

“There needs to be an age limit on congressional positions bc this was so embarrassing,” one user wrote in the caption of a video posted on Friday.

From New York Times Mar. 28, 2023

Allen said: When LT blocked him, not Sweat, he knew to stay outside bc Sweat would go inside.

From Washington Post Nov. 22, 2022

This is not figural: Aristotle’s works spent a couple hundred years in a cellar in what’s now western Turkey before someone dug them out in the first century bc.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

Erkan Konyar, professor of ancient history at Istanbul University, describes the kingdom as "one of the most powerful states of the ancient Near East, between the 9th and 7th centuries BC."

From Barron's Aug. 10, 2026

“Everyone loved BC because he was always there as the most supportive friend you could ever imagine,” his agency, Priority Sports, said in a statement after his death.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 7, 2026

Set in the late Bronze Age, in about the 13th Century BC, The Odyssey tells the story of the hero Odysseus and his quest to return from the Trojan War to his kingdom of Ithaca.

From BBC Jul. 23, 2026

This is how Greek audiences in the fourth and fifth centuries BC enjoyed the aural delivery of poems shaped by a long tradition of oral storytelling.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 10, 2026

By 10,000 BC, humans already inhabited the most southern point in America, the island of Tierra del Fuego at the continent’s southern tip.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

So, diagram the A/B premise and the B/C premise onto the three circles.

From Salon Jul. 29, 2024

“Out of an abundance of caution, TSA evacuated the B/C and D/E security checkpoints to ensure the safety of its employees and travelers,” a TSA spokesperson said in an email.

From Seattle Times Nov. 15, 2023

He’s a smart kid and normally a strong B/C student.

From Slate Feb. 11, 2021

As the BBC revealed on Wednesday, the inspectorate's findings on HMP Liverpool - a local category B/C prison, which also takes people on remand - are damning across the board.

From BBC Dec. 19, 2017

Taagepera, R. Size and duration of empires growth-decline curves, 3000 to 600 b.c.

From Nature Nov. 14, 2017

French archaeologists, for example, have found exquisite ceramic figurines, bowls and funerary objects at sites that date from at least 8000 b.c.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the Fertile Crescent, village accountants began keeping records with clay tokens around 8000 b.c.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

La Venta, too, was destroyed, perhaps deliberately, around 350 b.c.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

“In 3000 b.c. your aliens would have had a very limited number of options on the menu. And one of those options would have been the Norte Chico.”

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

In the middle of the first century B.C.,

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 31, 2026

Khichdi, derived from the Sanskrit word khicca, meaning a dish made with rice and legumes, dates back to the ninth century B.C.

From Salon Jun. 7, 2026

The end of the war and the aftermath of Sparta’s victory over Athens, through the years 404-371 B.C., are known to us through the writings of Xenophon, a less insightful observer.

From The Wall Street Journal May 25, 2026

The one that really moved me was an ancient Chinese calligraphy example that’s from 1000 B.C.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 21, 2026

The Old Kingdom forms the first major division after that, ending about 2155 B.C. with the overthrow of the Sixth Dynasty.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson

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