bc
1 Americanabbreviation
-
Music. basso continuo.
-
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
abbreviation
-
Scuba Diving. buoyancy compensator.
-
British Columbia, Canada (approved for postal use).
abbreviation
abbreviation
-
Bachelor of Chemistry.
-
Bachelor of Commerce.
-
bass clarinet.
-
battery commander.
-
British Columbia.
abbreviation
-
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
-
British Columbia
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
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:
“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
“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
They didn't want people to see my tweets and support me more & more bc they want to control information.
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2022
Honestly, my parents said I shouldn’t text you much bc of your mom and stuff.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
![]()
Another 1st or 2nd Century BC vessel was found north-west of Rome in 2023, again laden with hundreds of amphorae.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 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
The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs etched into the desert sands that date back to between 500 BC and 500 AD.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 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
Dionysius was clearly wrong; today most scholars believe that the birth of Christ was in 4 BC.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
![]()
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
![]()
Around 750 b.c. it was attacked and its temple razed in a fire so intense that the clay walls melted.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
![]()
Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 b.c.
From "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
![]()
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
![]()
In fact, the domestication of wolf to dog dovetailed into the emerging social structures of humankind, a coevolution documented in ancient petroglyphs of hunting from around 9000 B.C.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 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 end of the war and the aftermath of Sparta’s victory over Athens, through the years 404-371 B.C., are known to us through the writings of Xenophon, a less insightful observer.
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
Alphabets apparently arose only once in human history: among speakers of Semitic languages, in the area from modern Syria to the Sinai, during the second millennium B.C.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
![]()
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.