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  • b
    b
  • B
    B
    noun
    the second letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
  • B-
    B-
    (in designations of aircraft) bomber.
  • b.
    b.
    abbreviation
    bachelor.
  • B.
    B.
    abbreviation
    bachelor.
SEE ALSO:
Slang dictionary results for B.

b

1 American  

abbreviation

  1. Physics.

    1. bar; bars.

    2. barn; barns.


B 2 American  
[bee] / bi /
Or b

noun

  • B's,
    plural
  • Bs,
    plural
  • b's,
    plural
  • bs
    plural
  1. the second letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.

  2. any spoken sound represented by the letter B or b, as in bid, bauble, or daubed.

  3. something having the shape of a B .

  4. a written or printed representation of the letter B or b.

  5. a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter B or b.


B 3 American  

abbreviation

  1. Chess. bishop.

  2. Black. Also b

  3. Photography. bulb.


B 4 American  
Symbol.
  1. the second in order or in a series.

  2. (sometimes lowercase) (in some grading systems) a grade or mark, as in school or college, indicating the quality of a student's work as good or better than average.

  3. (sometimes lowercase) (in some school systems) a symbol designating the second semester of a school year.

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

  5. Music.

    1. the seventh tone in the scale of C major or the second tone in the relative minor scale, A minor.

    2. a string, key, or pipe tuned to this tone.

    3. a written or printed note representing this tone.

    4. (in the fixed system of solmization) the seventh tone of the scale of C major, called ti.

    5. the tonality having B as the tonic note.

  6. (sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 300.

  7. Chemistry. boron.

  8. a proportional shoe width size, narrower than C and wider than A.

  9. a proportional brassiere cup size, smaller than C and larger than A.

  10. Physics. magnetic induction.

  11. Electricity. susceptance.

  12. a designation for a motion picture made on a low budget and meant as the secondary part of a double feature.

  13. a quality rating for a corporate or municipal bond, lower than BB and higher than CCC.


B- 5 American  
U.S. Military.
  1. (in designations of aircraft) bomber.

    B-29.


b. 6 American  

abbreviation

  1. bachelor.

  2. bale.

  3. Baseball. base; baseman.

  4. bass.

  5. basso.

  6. bay.

  7. billion.

  8. blend of; blended.

  9. book.

  10. born.

  11. breadth.

  12. brother.

  13. brotherhood.


B. 7 American  

abbreviation

  1. bachelor.

  2. bacillus.

  3. Baseball. base; baseman.

  4. bass.

  5. basso.

  6. bay.

  7. Bible.

  8. bolivar.

  9. boliviano.

  10. book.

  11. born.

  12. breadth.

  13. British.

  14. brother.

  15. brotherhood.


B 1 British  

symbol

  1. music

    1. a note having a frequency of 493.88 hertz ( B above middle C ) or this value multiplied or divided by any power of 2; the seventh note of the scale of C major

    2. a key, string, or pipe producing this note

    3. the major or minor key having this note as its tonic

  2. the supporting or less important of two things

    the B side of a record

  3. a human blood type of the ABO group, containing the B antigen

  4. (in Britain) a secondary road

  5. the number 11 in hexadecimal notation

  6. chem boron

  7. magnetic flux density

  8. chess bishop

  9. (on Brit pencils, signifying degree of softness of lead) black Compare H

    B

    2B

    3B

  10. Also: b. physics bel

  11. physics baryon number

  12. balboa

  13. belga

  14. bolivar

  15. photog B-setting

    1. a person whose job is in middle management, or who holds an intermediate administrative or professional position

    2. ( as modifier ) See also occupation groupings

      a B worker

"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

abbreviation

  1. Belgium (international car registration)

"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
b 2 British  
/ biː /

noun

  1. the second letter and first consonant of the modern English alphabet

  2. a speech sound represented by this letter, usually a voiced bilabial stop, as in bell

  3. Also: beta. the second in a series, esp the second highest grade in an examination

"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

B. 3 British  

abbreviation

  1. (on maps, etc) bay

  2. British

"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

b. 4 British  

abbreviation

  1. born

  2. cricket bowled

"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

B- 5 British  

abbreviation

  1. bomber

    B-52

"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

b 6 British  

symbol

  1. chess See algebraic notation

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


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:

Discoveries such as Elias 2-24 b can provide crucial real-world tests for those models.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

"Elias 2-24 b is at the limit of what current telescopes can detect, but with new instruments like NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, such detections should become easier."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

Elias 2-24 b is roughly as massive as Jupiter and orbits a star about 450 light-years from Earth.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

"And that's exactly where we found Elias 2-24 b."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

Smith tried plan b: working Seabiscuit in the afternoons on Mondays, when Santa Anita was closed to racing and the dockers and reporters had gone home.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

If he had to sell his Class B shares to pay the tax, that would reduce his voting majority in the company, according to the filing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

To ensure Zuckerberg remains sufficiently invested in the company, the committee “stapled” 80% of his Class C shares, meaning that Zuckerberg cannot sell them unless he also sells his supervoting Class B shares.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026

“For those of us whose life circumstances have created options A, B, C, D, E, F and G, she might have options A and B,” El-Sayed said of the anecdote, which couldn’t be independently verified.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

It meant in the space of five seasons from Fabregas' arrival as a player, Como had gone from Serie B to the Champions League.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026

Then she’d frown at me and say, “Oh, Ida B, now let me finish,” like I was seriously trying her patience.

From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan

Giving an A for effort but B- for execution, the Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han said, external Elle is "cute enough" but doesn't make sense.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

The B- rating is constrained by Argentina’s international liquidity, high inflation, and macroeconomic instability.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026

S&P Global assigned Strategy a B- issuer credit rating with stable outlook in October, five notches below the lowest rung of investment grade.

From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026

Last month, the streamer’s co-CEO Greg Peters gave the company’s gaming efforts a B- grade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025

She holds my current grades by two fingers: D, C, B-, D, C-, C, A. No basketball team for me, because the A was in art, so my GPA is a whopping 1.7.

From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

In 2018, the Moscow Zoo launched a Blakiston’s fish owl breeding program, which currently is made up of two B. b. blakistoni females, one in Moscow and another at the Sakhalin Island Zoo.

From National Geographic ● Feb. 5, 2021

“I drive Kansas interstates frequently, and I know that they are doing an excellent job, a. keeping the ditches mowed and b., keeping our roads clear and safe,” said Claeys.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 10, 2019

For the following exercises, a. find the inverse function, and b. find the domain and range of the inverse function.

From Textbooks ● Mar. 30, 2016

Find the equation of the intersection curve of the surface at b. with the cone φ = π .

From Textbooks ● Mar. 30, 2016

The inscription turned out to be a date: September 3,32 b. c. , in today’s calendar.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The essay unfolds as a tent revival for the already converted, with the writers Wes Jackson, Scott Russell Sanders and Robert B. Weeden raising their hands to affirm and extend Berry’s thesis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

His father, the prolific actor beloved for roles in “Saving Private Ryan,” “Forrest Gump” and “Toy Story,” received the Globes’ Cecil B. Demille award later that evening.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japan's Kenso Soai for providing a solution to the chemical mystery of life's asymmetry.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

The laboratory research was led by Sweta B. Patel, PhD, and involved collaborations with University of Colorado Anschutz researchers, including Angelo D'Alessadro, PhD and Julie Reisz Haines, PhD, along with additional collaborators from several institutions.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

Larry Evans came along as Bobby’s second, and the ever-present Edmund B. Edmondson of the U.S.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Unless it’s Team A, by virtue of selecting first using Team B’s pick the previous season, that is eligible to pick first in consecutive seasons.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026

“We don’t want to be portrayed as: ‘Students don’t want to get B’s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

“I mean, I got some B’s in math in school, so yeah, I’m aware of the math there,” he said, acknowledging the swing nature of his vote.

From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2026

The song was called Killer B's, inspired by stories of deadly insects invading the US from Brazil.

From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2026

As she put on her red jersey, the coach scanned the class to pick Team B’s captain, his eyes settling on me, even though I was one of the least athletic girls.

From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

He had always been a good student, securing almost all A’s with a few Bs sprinkled in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

Ah’Mari, now a 17-year-old junior, said he earned As, Bs and one C throughout high school.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026

Only eight banks got Bs, while the majority got Cs; 36 got Ds.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026

The Glacier Range Riders begin the 2024 season with a home game on May 21 against the Oakland Bs, which also play in the Pioneer League.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2024

My Bs looked like Ps and I couldn’t make my Os rounder than a dried up pea.

From "Worth" by A. LaFaye

What do you think HD 3167 b's atmosphere is made of?

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

In addition to the silicate, the James Webb Space Telescope found that VHS 1256 b's atmosphere also has carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, potassium, sodium and water.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2022

It reveals the presence of water vapor and other molecules in WASP-96 b’s extremely hot atmosphere.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 21, 2022

Johansen says AB Aurigae b’s position in one of the disk’s spiral arms could indicate either creation mechanism.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 3, 2022

It was because she has trouble saying words sometimes, especially beginnings, like b’s and t’s and k’s.

From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

This won't be the last failure of this nature so long as people are rewarded for pushing this bs.

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2023

“SAME tone deaf energy as this bs from the start of the pandemic,” said a different user.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2022

Plaskett took note of all this attention and even retweeted a message that said “@StaceyPlaskett is all of us right now listening to the bs in #CohenHearing.”

From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2019

“Hey Joe, my buddy was offered an eli game used helmet and jersey. Are these the bs ones eli asked you to make up because he didnt want to give up the real stuff?”

From Washington Post ● Jun. 28, 2017

These find their way along the damp moss to the flower P, and entering the neck of one of the bottle-shaped sacs bs, find out each another cell or ovule inside.

From Through Magic Glasses and Other Lectures A Sequel to The Fairyland of Science by Arabella B. Buckley

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