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• c
  c

  abbreviation

  (with a year) about.
• C
  C

  noun

  the third letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
• c̄
  c̄

  (in prescriptions) with.
• C-
  C-

  (in designations of transport aircraft) cargo.
• c.
  c.

  abbreviation

  gallon.
• C.
  C.

  abbreviation

  Calorie.
• c/-
  c/-

  abbreviation

  care of

c

¹ American  

Or c.

abbreviation

1. (with a year) about.

   c1775.

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c ² American  

Or c.

abbreviation

1. Optics. candle; candles.

2. cycle; cycles.

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c ³ American  

Symbol.

1. Physics, Optics. the speed of light in a vacuum: standardized as 186,282.4 miles per second (299,792,458 meters per second).

2. Physics, Acoustics. the speed of sound.

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C ⁴ American  

[see] / si /

Or c

noun

• C's,
  plural
• Cs,
  plural
• c's,
  plural
• cs
  plural

1. the third letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.

2. any spoken sound represented by the letter C or c, as in cat, race, or circle.

3. something having the shape of a C .

4. a written or printed representation of the letter C or c.

5. a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter C or c.

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C ⁵ American  

noun

1. Computers. a high-level programming language: very powerful and flexible, it is used in a wide variety of applications.

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C ⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. cocaine.

2. Grammar. complement.

3. consonant.

4. Electricity. coulomb.

5. county (used with a number to designate a county road).

   C55.

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C ⁷ American  

Symbol.

1. the third in order or in a series.

2. (in some grading systems) a grade or mark, as in school or college, indicating the quality of a student's work as fair or average. Sometimes c

3. Music.

   1. the first tone, or keynote, in the scale of C major or the third 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 first tone of the scale of C major, called do.

   5. the tonality having C as the tonic note.

   6. a symbol indicating quadruple time and appearing after the clef sign on a musical staff.

4. the Roman numeral for 100. Sometimes c

5. Celsius.

6. centigrade.

7. Electricity.

   1. capacitance.

   2. a battery size for 1.5 volt dry cells: diameter, 1 inch (2.5 centimeters); length, 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters).

8. Chemistry. carbon.

9. Physics.

   1. charge conjugation

   2. charm.

10. Biochemistry.

    1. cysteine.

    2. cytosine.

11. Slang. Also a hundred-dollar bill.

12. a proportional shoe width size, narrower than D and wider than B.

13. a proportional brassiere cup size, smaller than D and larger than B.

14. the lowest quality rating for a corporate or municipal bond.

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c̄ ⁸ American  

Or c.

1. (in prescriptions) with.

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C- ⁹ American  

U.S. Military.

1. (in designations of transport aircraft) cargo.

   C-54; C-124.

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c. ¹⁰ American  

abbreviation

1. gallon.

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c. ¹¹ American  

abbreviation

1. Optics. candle; candles. Also c

2. carat.

3. carbon.

4. carton.

5. case.

6. Baseball. catcher.

7. cathode.

8. cent; cents.

9. centavo.

10. Football. center.

11. centigrade.

12. centime.

13. centimeter.

14. century.

15. chairman; chairperson.

16. chapter.

17. chief.

18. child.

19. church.

20. cirrus.

21. city.

22. cloudy.

23. cognate.

24. color.

25. copper.

26. copyright.

27. corps.

28. cubic.

29. cycle; cycles. Also c

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C. ¹² American  

abbreviation

1. Calorie.

2. Cape.

3. Catholic.

4. Celsius.

5. Celtic.

6. Centigrade.

7. College.

8. (in Costa Rica and El Salvador) colon; colons.

9. Congress.

10. Conservative.

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c/- ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. care of

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c ² British  

/ siː /

noun

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

2. a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually either a voiceless alveolar fricative, as in cigar, or a voiceless velar stop, as in case

3. the third in a series, esp the third highest grade in an examination

4. 1. something shaped like a C

   2. ( in combination )

      a C-spring

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c ³ British  

symbol

1. centi-

2. cubic

3. cycle

4. maths constant

5. specific heat capacity

6. the speed of light and other types of electromagnetic radiation in a vacuum

7. chess See algebraic notation

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C. ⁴ British  

abbreviation

1. (on maps as part of name) Cape

2. Catholic

3. Celtic

4. Conservative

5. Corps

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C- ⁵ British  

abbreviation

1. cargo transport

   C-5

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C ⁶ British  

symbol

1. music

   1. a note having a frequency of 261.63 hertz ( middle C ) or this value multiplied or divided by any power of 2; the first degree of a major scale containing no sharps or flats ( C major )

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

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

   4. a time signature denoting four crotchet beats to the bar See also alla breve common time

2. chem carbon

3. biochem cytosine

4. capacitance

5. heat capacity

6. cold (water)

7. physics compliance

8. Celsius

9. centigrade

10. century

    C20

11. coulomb

12. 100 See Roman numerals

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abbreviation

1. Cuba (international car registration)

noun

1. a computer programming language combining the advantages of a high-level language with the ability to address the computer at a level comparable with that of an assembly language

c. ⁷ British  

abbreviation

1. carat

2. cricket caught

3. cent(s)

4. century or centuries

5. (used esp preceding a date) circa

   c. 1800

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c Scientific  

1. The symbol for the speed of light in a vacuum.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• C's
  plural
• Cs
  plural
• c's
  plural
• cs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of c¹

From Latin circā, circiter, circum

Origin of c̄⁸

From the Latin word cum

Origin of c.¹⁰

From the Latin word congius

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

c C C- c. C. C's Cs c's cs

The newly confirmed planets, TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c, orbit an F7-type dwarf star about 1,110 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Volans.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 27, 2026

We can also see a copy of William Beechey’s c.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

Instead of having just three parameters—a, b, and c in this quadratic—the latest A.I. chatbots are estimated to have trillions of parameters.

From Slate ● May 25, 2026

Not every editor is quite as catholic with a little c, as ecumenical, as excited about such a range of writing as I am.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

Einstein assumed that everybody—no matter at what speed they are traveling—agrees about the speed of light in a vacuum: about 300 million meters per second, a constant denoted by the letter c.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

The Hepatitis C Trust says England is "on the cusp" of one of the most significant public health achievements in our country's history.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

A decade ago hepatitis C became one of the first chronic infections a pill could cure in a few weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

Between 2023 and 2025, nine other prisons had a higher number of deaths than Lowdham Grange, the most being 41 at HMP Littlehey, a Category C institution in Cambridgeshire.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

A middle C would smell like a rose; bass notes like clove and vanilla.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The girls of Dormitory C cheered, and were congratulated warmly by all the others.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

While it is hard to find universal statistics for everyone on Earth, European researchers estimated in a study published in 2018 that more than 0.5 percent of people in Germany suffer from C- PTSD.

From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2023

Its answer would’ve probably earned a C or C-.

From Slate ● Dec. 13, 2022

The film, about a girl with extraordinary pyrokinetic powers, landed a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and a "C-" CinemaScore from moviegoers.

From Reuters ● May 15, 2022

Audiences weren’t on board either, giving it a C- CinemaScore.

From Seattle Times ● May 15, 2022

I got one D, a C- in algebra and all the rest B’s, except for two B+’s and two B-’s.

From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank

The earliest are three allegorical scenes about the senses from c. 1624-25, when he was just shy of 20.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 24, 2026

Taped to the bottom of an Art Deco ceramic vase, for example, she has written: “Weller, Forest c. 1920. Paid $1 at a yard sale. Took to Antiques Roadshow in the 1990s. Valued at $250-$350.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2025

“Curious about the construction of this c. 1940 house, I grabbed a flashlight to get a better look.”

From Washington Post ● Sep. 22, 2021

“That’s the small c. But the big C in my life is Christianity.”

From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2019

For example, the megafauna of New Zealand—which had weathered the alleged ‘climate change’ of c. 45,000 years ago without a scratch—suffered devastating blows immediately after the first humans set foot on the islands.

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

That matters because the gut can only absorb so much vitamin C. Once you reach a modest daily dose, the body simply stops taking in much more.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

Judge Maurice C. Frazier issued the protective order against Adjepong on July 10; it will remain in place until July 10, 2027.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

When Vera C. Bushfield succeeded her late husband in 1948, she didn’t even bother to move to Washington.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

Senate President Thomas C. Alexander, who started his Seneca legal practice around the same time as Graham.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

At the new lab was a doctoral student named C. Vance Haynes.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The buzz: Though lacking the sizzle of Brazil-Morocco, Group C’s other first-day matchup is no less important.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

In high school, I received mostly B’s and C’s, and I didn’t study for the SATs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2025

I call them the three C’s: courts, crowds, and courage.

From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025

"They were put in a situation where they were scammed," Christophe Bruschi, Joseph C's lawyer, told the BBC.

From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2024

She groaned, anxious to get into the C’s where there was a book by Marie Corelli that she had peeped into and found thrilling.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

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

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026

The 16-year-old hopes to get a minimum of five Cs, including maths and Welsh, to study for a Level 3 in agricultural engineering at Coleg Glynllifon.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2025

"And by now, they would have found them. There would be plan Bs and plan Cs, to make sure that we have reduced this exposure to the US."

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2025

Prof. Gareth Law, a study collaborator from the University of Helsinki, explained that "this means we lack full information on the chemical form of Cs in the particles and fuel debris."

From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024

The Cs, on the other hand, were from the other side of the tracks.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Beyond consent, the other two c’s, credit and compensation, have their own challenges, as illustrated even now with the high cost of litigation regarding infringements of copyright or patents.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 7, 2023

“It hasn’t rained in months,” she said, her Tuscan Italian full of soft g’s and c’s.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2021

On the other hand I can always tell you that I lost a spelling bee to Juanita Meyers in the fifth grade; the word was necessary, I misspelled it with two "c's."

From New York Times ● Apr. 30, 2016

Hard consonants - k's, d's, hard c's and hard g's - gave me hell.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2010

I think about the curling g's and c's she was so proud to mark on her pages and show Du Barry when we were little.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

A contestant in the Season 3 premiere lays out her "four cs" theory of success: "courage, creativity, cash and celebrity."

From Time Magazine Archive

X. x, 2, 9; —— = cs and gs, 32. -x, decl. of monosyllables in, preceded by one or more cons.,

From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett

C or cz is pronounced as English ts; cs as English ch; ds as English j; zs as French j; gy as dy.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 8 "Hudson River" to "Hurstmonceaux" by Various

Quintilian remarks that x is not an indispensable letter in Latin, implying that cs and gs could take its place.

From Latin Pronunciation A Short Exposition of the Roman Method by Harry Thurston Peck

Longitudinal section of flower; v, bracteole on the peduncle; l, sepals; ls, appendage of sepal; c, petals; cs, spur of the lower petals; fs, glandular appendage of the lower stamens; a, anthers.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various

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