ab
ab Lexical Profile
ab Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An abdominal muscle, especially one of the rectus abdominis muscles situated along the front of the human abdomen (usually used in the plural).
"The trainer recommended planks and crunches to strengthen the core and tone each ab."
The eleventh month of the civil year and the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar, falling in July and August (commonly spelled Av).
"The solemn fast of Tisha B'Av is observed on the ninth day of Ab."
• preposition
Away from, off, or beginning from (used primarily in legal, academic, and commercial Latin phrases such as ab initio).
"The court declared the fraudulent contract void ab initio."
Word Nuance & Usage
In everyday fitness and anatomy contexts, 'ab' is almost always used in the plural form 'abs' to refer collectively to the abdominal muscles.
• Rhymes for ab
Word Origin & Etymology
The informal anatomical noun is a 20th-century clipping of 'abdominal', while the prepositional sense comes directly from the Latin preposition 'ab', meaning 'away from'.