ad

¹ American  

[ad] / æd /

noun

1. advertisement.

2. advertising.

   an ad agency.

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ad ² American  

[ad] / æd /

noun

Tennis.

1. advantage.

2. ad in, the advantage being scored by the server.

3. ad out, the advantage being scored by the receiver.

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ad ³ American  

[ad] / æd /

preposition

1. (in prescriptions) to; up to.

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ad- ⁴ American  

1. a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it meant “toward” and indicated direction, tendency, or addition: adjoin . Usually assimilated to the following consonant; a-, ac-, af-, ag-, al-, an-, ap-, ar-, as-, at-.

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-ad ⁵ American  

1. a suffix occurring in loanwords from Greek denoting a group or unit comprising a certain number, sometimes of years: dyad; triad .

2. a suffix meaning “derived from,” “related to,” “concerned with,” “associated with” (oread ), introduced in loanwords from Greek (Olympiad; oread ), used sporadically in imitation of Greek models, as Dunciad , after Iliad .

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-ad ⁶ American  

1. variant of -ade: ballad .

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-ad ⁷ American  

1. Anatomy, Zoology. a suffix forming adverbs from nouns signifying parts of the body, denoting a direction toward that part: dextrad; dorsad; mediad .

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ad. ⁸ American  

abbreviation

1. adverb.

2. advertisement.

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a.d. ⁹ American  

Or A.D.

abbreviation

1. in the year of the Lord; since Christ was born.

   Charlemagne was born in a.d. 742.

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a.d. ¹⁰ American  

abbreviation

1. before the day.

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a.d. ¹¹ American  

abbreviation

1. after date.

2. autograph document.

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A.D. ¹² American  

abbreviation

1. active duty.

2. anno Domini. Also a.d.

3. art director.

4. assembly district.

5. assistant director.

6. athletic director.

7. average deviation.

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AD ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. anno Domini Compare BC

   70 ad

2. military active duty

3. military air defence

4. Dame of the Order of Australia

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-ad ² British  

suffix

1. a group or unit (having so many parts or members)

   triad

2. an epic poem concerning (the subject indicated by the stem)

   Dunciad

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ad- ³ British  

prefix

1. to; towards

   adsorb

   adverb

2. near; next to

   adrenal

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-ad ⁴ British  

suffix

1. denoting direction towards a specified part in anatomical descriptions

   cephalad

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ad ⁵ British  

/ æd /

noun

1. short for advertisement

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ad ⁶ British  

/ æd /

noun

1. Brit equivalent: van.  short for advantage

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ad ⁷ British  

abbreviation

1. Andorra

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Usage

Because anno Domini means “in the year of the Lord,” its abbreviation a.d. was originally placed before rather than after a date: The Roman conquest of Britain began in a.d. 43 (or began a.d. 43). In edited writing, it is still usually placed before the date. But, by analogy with the position of b.c. “before Christ,” which always appears after a date ( Caesar was assassinated in 44 b.c. ), a.d. is also frequently found after the date in all types of writing, including historical works: The Roman emperor Claudius I lived from 10 b.c. to 54 a.d. Despite its literal meaning, a.d. is also used to designate centuries, being placed after the specified century: the second century a.d.

In strict usage, _ad is only employed with specific years: he died in 1621 ad , but he died in the 17th century (and not the 17th century ad ). Formerly the practice was to write _ad preceding the date ( ad 1621 ), and it is also strictly correct to omit in when _ad is used, since this is already contained in the meaning of the Latin anno Domini (in the year of Our Lord), but this is no longer general practice. _bc is used with both specific dates and indications of the period: Heraclitus was born about 540 bc ; the battle took place in the 4th century bc

Etymology

Origin of ad¹

First recorded in 1795–1800; by shortening

Origin of ad²

First recorded in 1915–20; by shortening

Origin of ad³

From Latin

Origin of ad-⁴

< Latin ad, ad- (preposition and prefix) to, toward, at, about; cognate with at ¹

Origin of -ad⁵

Greek -ad- (stem of -as ), specialization of feminine adjective-forming suffix, often used substantively

Origin of -ad⁷

From the Latin word ad toward, anomalously suffixed to the noun; introduced as a suffix by Scottish anatomist John Barclay (1758–1826) in 1803

Origin of a.d.⁹

From Latin annō Dominī

Origin of a.d.¹⁰

From Latin ante diem

Example Sentences

The new ad campaign appears to be an extension of his work to refute the anti-California narrative.

From Los Angeles Times

The team has a chance to pull ahead of the Nuggets with a win in Denver on Thursday, yet regardless of the outcome it will be debated ad nauseum.

From Los Angeles Times

He said that if Trade Desk clients can directly access ChatGPT’s ad inventory, it would “clearly be a positive” for the company.

From MarketWatch

It got a lot of positive buzz, since it was just funny as content and didn’t really feel like an ad.

From The Wall Street Journal

He has been on court regularly this week and, even though the arrangement with Raducanu is on a day-to-day basis, it is possible that Petchey could resume the ad hoc role he had last spring.

From BBC