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• ace
  ace

  noun

  a playing card or die marked with or having the value indicated by a single spot.
• ACE
  ACE

  abbreviation

  American Council on Education.

ace

¹ American  

[eys] / eɪs /

noun

1. a playing card or die marked with or having the value indicated by a single spot.

   He dealt me four aces in the first hand.

2. a single spot or mark on a playing card or die.

3. (in tennis, badminton, handball, etc.)

   1. Also called service ace.  a placement made on a service.

   2. any placement.

   3. a serve that the opponent fails to touch.

   4. the point thus scored.

4. a fighter pilot credited with destroying a prescribed number or more of enemy aircraft, usually five, in combat.

5. a very skilled person; expert; adept.

   an ace at tap dancing.

6. Slang. a one-dollar bill.

7. Slang. a close friend.

8. Golf.

   1. Also called hole in one.  a shot in which the ball is driven from the tee into the hole in one stroke.

      He hit a 225-yard ace on the first hole.

   2. a score of one stroke made on such a shot.

      to card an ace.

9. Slang. a barbiturate or amphetamine capsule or pill.

10. a very small quantity, amount, or degree; a particle.

    not worth an ace.

11. Slang. a grade of A; the highest grade or score.

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verb (used with object)

• aces,
  present (3rd person singular)
• aced,
  past participle,  past
• acing
  present participle

1. (in tennis, badminton, handball, etc.) to win a point against (one's opponent) by an ace.

2. Golf. to make an ace on (a hole).

3. Slang. to cheat, defraud, or take advantage of (often followed byout ).

   to be aced out of one's inheritance;

   friend who aced me out of a good job.

4. Slang.

   1. to receive a grade of A, as on a test or in a course (sometimes followed byout ).

   2. to complete easily and successfully.

      He aced every physical fitness test they gave him.

adjective

1. Sometimes aces excellent; first-rate; outstanding.

verb phrase

1. ace it to accomplish something with complete success.

   a champion who could ace it every time.

idioms

1. ace up one's sleeve, an important, effective, or decisive argument, resource, or advantage kept in reserve until needed.

2. easy aces, aces equally divided between opponents.

3. be aces with, to be highly regarded by.

   The boss says you're aces with him.

4. within an ace of, within a narrow margin of; close to.

   He came within an ace of winning.

ace ² American  

[eys] / eɪs /

noun

1. a person who experiences little or no sexual attraction to other people; asexual.

   She's an ace, but she's had a couple of romantic relationships.

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adjective

1. experiencing little or no sexual attraction to other people.

   As someone who identifies as ace, this article gave me much food for thought.

ACE ³ American  

abbreviation

1. American Council on Education.

2. Army Corps of Engineers.

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ace ¹ British  

/ eɪs /

noun

1. any die, domino, or any of four playing cards with one spot

2. a single spot or pip on a playing card, die, etc

3. tennis a winning serve that the opponent fails to reach

4. golf a hole in one

5. a fighter pilot accredited with destroying several enemy aircraft

6. informal an expert or highly skilled person

   an ace at driving

7. a hidden and powerful advantage

8. to have all the advantages or power

9. to use one's best weapon or resource

10. almost to the point of

    he came within an ace of winning

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adjective

1. informal superb; excellent

verb

1. tennis to serve an ace against

2. golf to play (a hole) in one stroke

3. to perform extremely well or score very highly in (an examination, etc)

ACE ² British  

/ eɪs /

acronym

1. (in Britain) Advisory Centre for Education; a private organization offering advice on schools to parents

2. Allied Command Europe

3. angiotensin-converting enzyme See ACE inhibitor

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ace More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing ace

• hold all the aces
• within an ace of

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• acing
  present
• aced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ace
  simple
• aces
  simple
• have aced
  perfect
• has aced
  perfect
• am acing
  progressive
• are acing
  progressive
• is acing
  progressive
• have been acing
  perfect progressive
• has been acing
  perfect progressive

Past

• aced
  simple
• had aced
  perfect
• was acing
  progressive
• were acing
  progressive
• had been acing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ace
  simple
• will have aced
  perfect
• will be acing
  progressive
• will have been acing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ace¹

First recorded in 1250–1300, in 1795–1800 ace ¹ for def. 5; from Middle English as, aas, ais, from Old French as, from Latin ass- (stem of as ) “a copper coin (originally weighing one pound), unit (of money, weight)”; sense 4 was taken directly from French as in World War I, and sense 5 developed from sense 4; see origin at as ²

Origin of ace²

First recorded in 2005–10; shortening of asexual ( def. )

Explanation

An ace is a playing card with the highest value in a deck. There are four aces in a full deck of cards, each with a single heart, spade, diamond, or club pictured on it. Ace can also describe someone who's excellent at a particular skill: "He's an ace at making homemade jam!" In tennis, an ace is a point scored on a missed serve, and in golf it's a hole in one. When you ace something, you do a great job: "Just get in there and ace that math test today!" The earliest meaning was "one at dice," from the Latin as, "a unit, one, or a whole."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ace ACE aces aced acing

But it’s ludicrous that the country’s ace legal reporters never provided the public even an inkling of these legal defects.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

On a Super Bowl-favorite team that includes Kyren Williams, Blake Corum and Ronnie Rivers, who is also a special teams ace, Hunter was not going to play unless there were a series of injuries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

Runner-up Rybakina had one ace and four double faults, hitting just 13 winners and making 23 unforced errors in total.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

The Dodgers are set to acquire Skubal, adding yet another ace to their rotation as they pursue their third consecutive World Series championship.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

After the first two cards were dealt around the table, I had an ace showing.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

Both groups also continued receiving standard treatment with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026

An ACE score, identifying the severity of early trauma, is now routinely used in clinical settings and shapes decisions about trauma therapy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026

Kelsey Christensen, a trade attorney at law firm Clark Hill, also noted problems with ACE accounts.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026

ACE awarded £12.23m in funding where an applicant name, project title or category contained the word "comedy" between 2010/11 to 2024/25, according to the government.

From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026

The browser opens up, and I get to a search page, and I punch in "ACE spacecraft."

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements

Sometimes, the outfits are aces, leaving athletes feeling good and playing well.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

More: For 44 years, this investor held aces in the long-bond game.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

If he teams up with Jacob Misiorowski or Chris Sale in a five-game divisional round they could face three games against aces.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026

He won 87% of points behind his first serve and hit 13 aces to two double faults.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

Ivy laid down three aces, and Robin stuck her tongue out at her.

From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake

Steve aced the audition, and the four of us clicked immediately over our shared love of the Pretenders and all things Monty Python.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

There hadn’t been a single hole-in-one at the Masters since 2022, when Stewart Cink carded one on the 16th—the same hole Lowry had aced six years earlier with a brilliant 8-iron.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026

Levito, skating in her mother’s hometown of Milan where her grandmother still lives, calmly aced her Olympic debut with a score of 70.84 that put her in eighth place.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

The same AI that aced the genius test can’t count how many times the letter “R” appears in “strawberry.”

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025

Never mind that I aced it once I recovered.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Meanwhile he brags about acing three different cognitive tests in the last year.

From Salon ● Jan. 2, 2026

For years, high-schoolers have boasted in college applications about learning Latin, leading the chess club or acing Advanced Placement Physics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025

According to the National Hole-In-One-Registry the odds of two players from the same foursome acing the same hole is 17 million to 1.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2024

“Bragging about acing a cognitive test while forgetting the name of the doctor who gave it to you is like writing on a résumé that you speak three languages and misspelling the word ‘languages.’”

From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024

I took pride in acing my classes, plus our family needed every extra cent.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

Related Words

• winner