b
b
1 Americanabbreviation
B
2
American
[bee]
/ bi /
Or
b
noun
-
B's,
plural
-
Bs,
plural
-
b's,
plural
-
bs
plural
-
the second letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
-
any spoken sound represented by the letter B or b, as in bid, bauble, or daubed.
-
something having the shape of a B .
-
a written or printed representation of the letter B or b.
-
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter B or b.
B
4
American
Symbol.
-
the second in order or in a series.
-
(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.
-
(sometimes lowercase) (in some school systems) a symbol designating the second semester of a school year.
-
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.
-
Music.
-
the seventh tone in the scale of C major or the second tone in the relative minor scale, A minor.
-
a string, key, or pipe tuned to this tone.
-
a written or printed note representing this tone.
-
(in the fixed system of solmization) the seventh tone of the scale of C major, called ti.
-
the tonality having B as the tonic note.
-
-
(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 300.
-
Chemistry. boron.
-
a proportional shoe width size, narrower than C and wider than A.
-
a proportional brassiere cup size, smaller than C and larger than A.
-
Physics. magnetic induction.
-
Electricity. susceptance.
-
a designation for a motion picture made on a low budget and meant as the secondary part of a double feature.
-
a quality rating for a corporate or municipal bond, lower than BB and higher than CCC.
B-
5
American
U.S. Military.
b.
6
American
abbreviation
-
bachelor.
-
bale.
-
Baseball. base; baseman.
-
bass.
-
basso.
-
bay.
-
billion.
-
blend of; blended.
-
book.
-
born.
-
breadth.
-
brother.
-
brotherhood.
B.
7
American
abbreviation
-
bachelor.
-
bacillus.
-
Baseball. base; baseman.
-
bass.
-
basso.
-
bay.
-
Bible.
-
bolivar.
-
boliviano.
-
book.
-
born.
-
breadth.
-
British.
-
brother.
-
brotherhood.
B
1
British
symbol
-
music
-
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
-
a key, string, or pipe producing this note
-
the major or minor key having this note as its tonic
-
-
the supporting or less important of two things
the B side of a record
-
a human blood type of the ABO group, containing the B antigen
-
(in Britain) a secondary road
-
the number 11 in hexadecimal notation
-
chem boron
-
magnetic flux density
-
chess bishop
-
(on Brit pencils, signifying degree of softness of lead) black Compare H
B
2B
3B
-
Also: b. physics bel
-
physics baryon number
-
balboa
-
belga
-
bolivar
-
photog B-setting
-
-
a person whose job is in middle management, or who holds an intermediate administrative or professional position
-
( as modifier ) See also occupation groupings
a B worker
-
abbreviation
b
2
British
/ biː /
noun
-
the second letter and first consonant of the modern English alphabet
-
a speech sound represented by this letter, usually a voiced bilabial stop, as in bell
-
Also: beta. the second in a series, esp the second highest grade in an examination
B.
3
British
abbreviation
-
(on maps, etc) bay
-
British
b.
4
British
abbreviation
-
born
-
cricket bowled
B-
5
British
abbreviation
b
6
British
symbol
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:
The subject of this study, HD 3167 b, is noticeably cooler than its expected maximum, providing strong evidence that it has an atmosphere.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
"And that's exactly where we found Elias 2-24 b."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
"Elias 2-24 b shows us that even our best planet-formation models are still missing some important processes."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
Elias 2-24 b, by comparison, orbits about 10 times farther from its star.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
For a square of size one, this means that we cannot choose counting numbers a and b such that the diagonal of the square can be expressed as a/b.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
After breakfast, James B, who has been pretty consistently wrong with his theories throughout the series, continued his fine form, saying of Maya and Kenny: "I think they are the two most innocent."
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
"I think it's in the right hands," declared James B back at the castle, now colder than ever in terms of catching a traitor.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
Meta has a dual-class share structure, dividing the stock into Class A shares with one vote each and Class B shares with 10 votes each.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
Zuckerberg currently holds 60.6% voting power over the company through his Class A stock and super-voting Class B shares.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026
The millisecond I’d found out that Mrs. B was an aerospace engineer at NASA, I’d known we would be friends.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
In May, Fitch Ratings upgraded Argentina to B- from CCC+, following October elections which saw current President Javier Milei emerge with a stronger popular mandate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
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
S&P Global assigned Strategy a B- issuer credit rating with stable outlook in October.
From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025
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
Using the interpretations from b. and c. explain why the Holling type I equation may not be realistic.
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
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
I feel like he did “Johnny B. Goode.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
B. Her full-page compositions were then engraved onto copper plates, printed in black-and-white, and bound into books with her text.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
Even though he got mostly B’s in the quarterly marking periods, according to his transcript, he failed the final.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Since her breakout semi-final performance at the Miami Open last year, Eala has re-ignited interest in tennis in the Philippines, a country obsessed with the three B's - basketball, boxing and beauty queens.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
Beyond Beyoncé, Eminem and The Weeknd headlined, but one of the other standouts was Cardi B’s TLC-inspired performance on the main stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 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
I had obtained A’s and B’s in all the other subjects, but because I had failed Tsonga, which carried more weight, I had failed.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Summer is a season of Bs: beaches, barbecues, baseball—and blockbusters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Only eight banks got Bs, while the majority got Cs; 36 got Ds.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026
“If we think there are risks, depending on our analysis of the context, we have fallback scenarios. There are plan Bs and plan Cs,” Macron said.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 17, 2024
“We asked them to give him a letter grade, and most were in the low Bs and Cs.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2023
Since the “Toast for Change” wiped the slate clean for many of them, their grades have gone from Ds and Fs to As and Bs.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
"We are confident the same technique will allow us to clarify the nature of LHS 3844 b's crust and, in the future, other rocky exoplanets," concludes Kreidberg.
From Science Daily ● May 5, 2026
Despite orbiting at such a vast distance from its host stars, the James Webb Space Telescope was able to study VHS 1256 b's atmosphere and found evidence of several intriguing compounds — including water.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2023
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
“You are smart enough to think through some bs propaganda,” Brian wrote to A.J. on Facebook.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2023
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
But he has also been dismissive, as he was as recently as Dec. 20, when he tweeted, “Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2021
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
A little while afterwards the whole peaceful parsonage of Upper Wood lay in deep sleep; only old 'Lizebeth went about the passage calling: "Bs, bs, bs."
From Erick and Sally by Johanna Spyri
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