ad
noun
Jump To:
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:
A new Diet Coke ad is reminiscent of Marlboro’s iconic branding.
From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2026
USA Today has a lawsuit pending against Google, alleging it holds a monopoly in ad tech that hurts the publisher’s ad revenue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Recent ad campaigns and short films have shown that AI video -- even when it includes human characters -- has crossed a real threshold.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
The Danish company filed a lawsuit in the US on Tuesday claiming Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound, deployed ad campaigns to "create the misleading impression that Eli Lilly's medicines are superior".
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
In Levene’s mind, the four bases were repeated in a defined order: AGCT-AGCT-AGCT-AGCT and so forth ad nauseam.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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
From Aesop’s Fables to Arabian Nights, many classic stories are about ad- venture and quests.
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
To make sick = naŭz‑i; -ad denotes continuation. 8Tired of.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
Gay = gaj‑a; gloomy = malgaja; suf. -ad denotes continuance.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
To roll = rul‑i; suf. -ad denotes continuance. 9Weariness.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
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
A spokesperson for the ASA said: "We've received a complaint about a Nationwide ad. The complainant argues that the ad is misleading around other banks closing branches, and discredits and denigrates its competitors."
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2024
“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
“You gonna go try somewheres tomorrow. I mean it. The first thing you gonna do is answer this ad. You playing around, Ignatius. I know you.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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
In about 750 a.d., about a century after Wari came to Cerro Baul, Tiwanaku groups infiltrated the region around it.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
By the end of the first millennium a.d., agriculture was spreading rapidly and the region was becoming an unusual patchwork of communities, each with its preferred terrain, way of subsistence, and cultural style.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
People had lived around the Xingu for a long time, but around iioo or 1200 a.d.,
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
“In the 14th century A.D., a Moroccan explorer named Ibn Battuta documented that a buttery variation of khichuri was eaten daily in South Asia,” wrote Rachael Grow for Mashed.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
To say that our picture of the Mayan civilization—an interlocking network of kingdoms occupying the Yucatán Peninsula and swaths of present-day Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador from roughly 1000 B.C. to A.D.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
He argues that Ptolemy’s map of Britain from the second century A.D. was a “British wonder of the ancient world.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
He played Georgio, the waiter in the crumbling hotel, in Carry On Abroad in 1972, and also killed daleks and cybermen in the 1966 Dr Who movie Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2025
He wrote, probably, in the first or second century A.D.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Speaking to AD, Williams credited her sister and longtime doubles teammate for helping her to create the perfect home for her family.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 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
The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD was, among other things, the first large-scale institutional exercise in theological fact-checking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Athleticism in the post: JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard who could play with or for AD.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
He lived until the end of the second century AD, or possibly just into the beginning of the third century.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
