ad1
/ad
/noun informal
1An advertisement: the latest television lager ad...
- Galleries are also available of the posters and print ads used to advertise the movie.
- Bash is also trying to decrease the number of tobacco commercials and ads on television and in the media.
- A quick survey of all the commercials on television and ads in newspapers would make us believe that it does.
2 Tennis Advantage.An experimental No Ad tennis scoring system will be used at a professional tournament for the first time next week in an attempt to make the game more attractive to television.
Origin
Mid 19th century: abbreviation.
Rhymes
AD2
/eɪˈdiː/abbreviation
Anno Domini (used to indicate that a date comes the specified number of years after the traditional date of Christ’s birth).
Usage
ad is normally written in small capitals and is traditionally placed before the numerals, as in ad 375 (not 375 ad). The reason for this is that ad is an abbreviation of anno domini, which means ‘in the year of our Lord’. However, when the date is spelled out, it is normal to write the third century ad (not ad the third century). Compare with BC.