ABC

[ey-bee-see]

See more synonyms for ABC on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural ABC's, ABCs.

ABC's(defs 1, 3).

ABC

Trademark. American Broadcasting Companies: a television and radio network.
atomic, biological, and chemical: ABC warfare.

A.B.C.

Advance Booking Charter.
Alcoholic Beverage Control.

ABC's

or ABCs

[ey-bee-seez]

noun (used with a plural verb)

Also ABC. the alphabet.
the basic skills of spelling, reading, and writing: learning the ABC's in the early grades of school.
Also ABC. the basic or elementary facts, principles, etc., of a subject: the ABC's of electricity.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for abc

case, specific, article, fact, circumstance, rundown, picture, story, thing, nitty-gritty, specification, point, feature, scoop, element, item, cue, score, know, gospel

Examples from the Web for abc

Contemporary Examples of abc

The program—weirdly—is now under the umbrella of ABC News, and is suffering from flat ratings and an aging demographic.
The Bloodiest Media Coups of 2014
Lloyd Grove
December 22, 2014
Her mother told ABC News she believes Manson loves her daughter, and that “she has been good to him.”
Mrs. Manson, Hometown Antihero
Justin Glawe
November 24, 2014
After rumored courting by both ABC and NBC, Pippa Middleton is reportedly inking a deal to become a Today correspondent.
NBC’s Today Show ‘Hires’ Pippa Middleton
Lloyd Grove, Tom Sykes
November 5, 2014
Among her detractors was Dr. Bob Arnot, who covered medical issues for NBC before Snyderman joined the network from ABC News.
NBC’s Soup-Loving Dr. Nancy Keeps Her Job
Lloyd Grove
October 23, 2014
While King has shepherded The Good Wife, Commander in Chief was championed by ABC executive Anne Sweeney.
Will There Ever Be a ‘Good Wife’ Effect on Politics?
Keli Goff
October 20, 2014

Historical Examples of abc

Much better just pound away at the ABC and simple arithmetic and so on.
Fantasia of the Unconscious
D. H. Lawrence
Triliteral and Multiliteral Propositions (such as “All abc are de”).
Symbolic Logic
Lewis Carroll
There exists a plane ABC, which does not contain all the points.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 6
Various
Not that in all circles the radii are equal, but only that they are so in the circle ABC.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive
John Stuart Mill
Slavery was a terra incognito to him then, a book of which he had not learned the ABC.
William Lloyd Garrison
Archibald H. Grimke

British Dictionary definitions for abc

ABC

noun

(plural in US) the rudiments of a subject
an alphabetical guide to a subject
(often plural in US) the alphabet

ABC

abbreviation for

(formerly, of weapons or warfare) atomic, biological, and chemical
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
American Broadcasting Company
Audit Bureau of Circulation
Australian Australian-born Chinese: a person with Chinese parents, born and raised in Australia
US American-born Chinese: a person with Chinese parents, born and raised in the US
British acceptable behaviour contract: a voluntary written agreement between someone who has been involved in anti-social behaviour and a local agency such as a housing association, council, or police

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

Word Origin and History for abc

ABC

"the alphabet," late 13c., abece. Sense "rudiments or fundamentals (of a subject)" is from late 14c. From 1944 (in a "Billboard" headline) as a shortening of American Broadcasting Company. Related: ABCs.