abdominal
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of abdominal
Explanation
Anything abdominal relates to the midsection of your body, just below your chest and above your pelvis. Abdominal muscles are sometimes called “abs” and they’re the muscles in your abdomen. All abdominal things relate to the belly area. If your stomach hurts, you have abdominal pain. Sit-ups are abdominal exercises. Do enough sit-ups and you'll have washboard abs because the rippled muscles look like, well, a washboard. Any stomach surgery is a type of abdominal surgery. Sometimes abdominal is used as a noun that’s short for abdominal muscle.
Vocabulary lists containing abdominal
Turtles All the Way Down
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The Hot Zone
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Stuart Little
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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:
Cyclosporiasis is a parasitic infection that can cause diarrhea, vomiting and intense abdominal pain that can last for weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
People with cyclosporiasis experience symptoms like watery diarrhea and abdominal cramping and need to be treated with antibiotics.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
He was previously hospitalized there in May after suffering from vomiting and abdominal pain.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
By the time a patient experiences signs, such as jaundice – a yellowing of the skin – or abdominal pain, the cancer has often already spread to other organs.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
The daily walk is no longer prescribed, to keep her abdominal muscles in working order.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
After absorbing his introduction to the concept of situps, I followed along as nameless ladies in shiny leotards instructed me to reach, crunch and tune into my abdominals, my ankles wrapped in weights.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2022
Hwang, who treats people with pelvic floor issues, said she addresses tense abdominals in her patients “on a regular basis.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 12, 2021
Women tend to be more flexible and sometimes overextend their low backs, and we just need to do a little maintenance to keep our low abdominals, low back, and pelvic floor strong and working together.
From Slate ● May 13, 2020
The exercise above—a modified Turkish sit-up—improves strength in the abdominals and upper back.
From Golf Digest ● Oct. 24, 2019
She’ll have to make sure to add some crunches and leg lifts to strengthen her abdominals and her glutes.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
