Ab
noun
Av.
Ab
1 American
[ahb, ahv]
/ ɑb, ɑv /
noun
AB
3
American
abbreviation
-
Nautical. able seaman.
-
U.S. Air Force. Airman Basic.
-
Alberta, Canada (approved for postal use).
-
antiballistic; antiballistic missile.
AB
4
American
Symbol, Physiology.
ab-
5
American
ab.
6
American
abbreviation
-
about.
-
Baseball. (times) at bat.
A.B.
7
American
abbreviation
A.B.
8
American
AB
1
British
abbreviation
-
Also: a.b.. able-bodied seaman
-
(in the US) Bachelor of Arts
-
(esp in postal addresses) Alberta (Canada)
symbol
Ab
2
British
/ æb /
noun
ab-
3
British
prefix
ab-
4
British
prefix
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."
Vocabulary lists containing ab
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:
Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said authorities were working with Interpol to track down the mastermind behind the operations.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
"A second visit to Eps Ind Ab with JWST: new photometry confirms ammonia and suggests thick clouds in the exoplanet atmosphere of the closest super-Jupiter" in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 2026
Some flirted only briefly with Ab Ex ideas before moving on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 28, 2026
So it felt like Ab to Abby was a very cute jump.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2025
No one knew why he was called Ab Sheehan, The Abbot, but all Limerick loved him.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Co-author David Mataix-Cols states that he has received author's fees from UpToDate Inc and that he is a partner in Scandinavian E-Health AB, which is unrelated to the publication.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
SYDNEY—EQT’s EQT -1.35%decrease; down pointing triangle AB pursuit of Perpetual looks over after the Australian investment manager rejected its US$2.6 billion takeover proposal and said it had stopped engaging with the Swedish private-equity provider.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
The decline of McClatchy, with its roots in California’s Gold Rush era, speaks to the larger challenges facing the news industry — and the reason AB 2222 was written.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
The MAL story also illustrates how much complexity is hidden behind the familiar letters A, B, AB and O.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Any AB and NAB naturals out there who want to share their regimen?
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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
But the Chaldeans, the great idolaters of fire, ab- horred the burning of their carcases, as a pollution of that deity.
From Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend by Sir Thomas Browne
Nature ab- horreth the warre of the Grecians.
From A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike because all other partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon, euery parte sette forthe in an Oracion vpon questions, verie profitable to bee knowen and redde by Richard Rainolde
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 Jules Verne
When first I doffed my olive drab, I thought, delightedly though mutely, "Henceforth I shall have pleasure ab- Solutely."
From Something Else Again by Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce) Adams
In the third edition it was reprinted at the end of the Stans puer ad Mensam by Wynkin de Worde ab. 1501-1510.
From Caxton's Book of Curtesye by Frederick James Furnivall
“It’s with a heavy heart to let you guys know that my Dad passed away today,” Quintanilla’s son, A.B.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2025
"Our focus is on crop improvement, pest and disease surveillance, soil management, capacity building, and technology transfer related to cardamom," says A.B.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2025
“We’re in our toddler, young juvenile phase, of trying to navigate things with the industry,” said Felicia A.B.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
The great Andre Braugher was originally cast as the character A.B.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2025
He planned to complete work for an A.B. degree and then enter law school.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
