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• Ab
  Ab

  noun

  Av.
• AB
  AB

  abbreviation

  able seaman.
• ab-
  ab-

  a formal element occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it meant “away from”.
• ab.
  ab.

  abbreviation

  about.
• A.B.
  A.B.

  abbreviation

  Bachelor of Arts.

Ab

¹ American  

[ahb, ahv] / ɑb, ɑv /

noun

1. Av.

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Ab ² American  

Symbol.

1. Chemistry. alabamine.

2. Immunology. antibody.

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AB ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Nautical. able seaman.

2. airborne.

3. U.S. Air Force. Airman Basic.

4. Alberta, Canada (approved for postal use).

5. antiballistic; antiballistic missile.

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AB ⁴ American  

Symbol, Physiology.

1. a major blood group usually enabling a person whose blood is of this type to donate blood to persons of type AB and to receive blood from persons of type O, A, B, or AB.

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ab- ⁵ American  

1. a formal element occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it meant “away from”.

   abdicate; abolition.

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ab. ⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. about.

2. Baseball. (times) at bat.

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A.B. ⁷ American  

abbreviation

1. Bachelor of Arts.

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A.B. ⁸ American  

abbreviation

1. Nautical. able seaman.

2. Baseball. (times) at bat. Also a.b.

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AB ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. Also: a.b..  able-bodied seaman

2. (in the US) Bachelor of Arts

3. (esp in postal addresses) Alberta (Canada)

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symbol

1. a human blood type of the ABO group, containing both the A antigen and the B antigen

Ab ² British  

/ æb /

noun

1. a variant of Av

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ab- ³ British  

prefix

1. away from; off; outside of; opposite to

   abnormal

   abaxial

   aboral

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ab- ⁴ British  

prefix

1. denoting a cgs unit of measurement in the electromagnetic system

   abvolt

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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."

Example Sentences

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

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 Verne, Jules

To find whether a wanted word in ab- occurs in this glossary, it was necessary to look through more than two columns containing ninety-five entries.

From The evolution of English lexicography by Murray, James Augustus Henry

I demand an ab- solute knowledge of the then present; I demand a knowledge of the constitution of the human mind— of the facts in nature, and that is all I demand.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 5 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Ingersoll, Robert Green

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 Cox, Palmer