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• bc
  bc

  abbreviation

  basso continuo.
• BC
  BC

  abbreviation

  buoyancy compensator.
• B/C
  B/C

  bills for collection.
• b.c.
  b.c.

  abbreviation

  before Christ (used in indicating dates).
• B.C.
  B.C.

  abbreviation

  Bachelor of Chemistry.

bc

¹ American  

abbreviation

1. Music. basso continuo.

2. blind copy: used as a notation on the copy of a letter or other document sent to a third person without the addressee's knowledge. Also

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BC ² American  

abbreviation

1. Scuba Diving. buoyancy compensator.

2. British Columbia, Canada (approved for postal use).

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B/C ³ American  

1. bills for collection.

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b.c. ⁴ American  

Or B.C.

abbreviation

1. before Christ (used in indicating dates).

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B.C. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. Bachelor of Chemistry.

2. Bachelor of Commerce.

3. bass clarinet.

4. battery commander.

5. British Columbia.

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BC British  

abbreviation

1. Also: B.C..  (indicating years numbered back from the supposed year of the birth of Christ) before Christ Compare AD

   in 54 bc Caesar came

2. British Columbia

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Usage

The abbreviation b.c. “before Christ” is always placed after a date or century: Cleopatra lived from 69 to 30 b.c. The war took place in the first century b.c. See also a.d. ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bc BC B/C b.c. B.C.

“We *want* remain pass less and will continue to wear our man repellent vision helpers, mostly so we can function, but also bc of the bonus Creeper Deterrents. #jeopardy #foureyes,” another wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2024

Ohh my fault, it was holding bc he threw the flag.”

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 2, 2023

“There needs to be an age limit on congressional positions bc this was so embarrassing,” one user wrote in the caption of a video posted on Friday.

From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2023

Allen said: When LT blocked him, not Sweat, he knew to stay outside bc Sweat would go inside.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 22, 2022

In his comic play The Clouds, Aristophanes, writing in 420 bc, lampooned rhetoric as the art of weak reasoning, “which by false arguments triumphs over the strong.”

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

The BC Wildfire Service reported more than 100 active wildfires in the province as of late Sunday.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

“Everyone loved BC because he was always there as the most supportive friend you could ever imagine,” his agency, Priority Sports, said in a statement after his death.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

Set in the late Bronze Age, in about the 13th Century BC, The Odyssey tells the story of the hero Odysseus and his quest to return from the Trojan War to his kingdom of Ithaca.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

This is how Greek audiences in the fourth and fifth centuries BC enjoyed the aural delivery of poems shaped by a long tradition of oral storytelling.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

The Roman Republic reached the height of its power in the first century BC, when treasure fleets from throughout the Mediterranean enriched the Romans beyond their ancestors’ wildest dreams.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

So, diagram the A/B premise and the B/C premise onto the three circles.

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2024

“Out of an abundance of caution, TSA evacuated the B/C and D/E security checkpoints to ensure the safety of its employees and travelers,” a TSA spokesperson said in an email.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 15, 2023

He’s a smart kid and normally a strong B/C student.

From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2021

As the BBC revealed on Wednesday, the inspectorate's findings on HMP Liverpool - a local category B/C prison, which also takes people on remand - are damning across the board.

From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2017

Taagepera, R. Size and duration of empires growth-decline curves, 3000 to 600 b.c.

From Nature ● Nov. 14, 2017

French archaeologists, for example, have found exquisite ceramic figurines, bowls and funerary objects at sites that date from at least 8000 b.c.

From Time Magazine Archive

According to radiocarbon tests, the Norte Chico gourd was harvested between 2280 and 2180 b.c.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The implication is that by 32 b.c. the Olmec already had all three calendars and zero to boot.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The first period of hegemony was that of Chavin, which from about 700 b.c. to the dawn of the Christian era controlled the central coast of Peru and the adjacent mountains.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Back in 416 B.C., the refusal to submit to Athens, the superpower of antiquity, ended badly for the islanders of Melos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Khichdi, derived from the Sanskrit word khicca, meaning a dish made with rice and legumes, dates back to the ninth century B.C.

From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026

The tale of Athenian overreach is better known today than its Spartan counterpart, largely because Thucydides, one of antiquity’s finest historians, captured it in his account of the Peloponnesian War, which began in 431 B.C.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026

The one that really moved me was an ancient Chinese calligraphy example that’s from 1000 B.C.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026

The metallurgical skills, inks, and presses of 1700 B.C.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond