Meaning & use
ab
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Meaning
nouncountable
An abdominal muscle, especially one of the muscles across the front of the stomach.
Grammar: Usually plural, abs, for the group; one ab is rare outside anatomy or exercise talk.
Patterns
- work your abs
- strong abs
- feel it in your abs
She does planks to strengthen her abs.
After the workout, I could really feel it in my abs.
He showed off his toned abs at the pool.
Word forms
| plural | abs |
|---|
Common combinations
- work your abs
- Crunches are one way to work your abs.
- toned abs
- Dancing can give you strong, toned abs over time.
- sore abs
- My abs were sore after the first rowing class.
- abs workout
- The app includes a short abs workout for beginners.
- six-pack abs
- He trained for months trying to get six-pack abs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- abdominal muscles
- This is the full, more formal term; abs is the everyday fitness word.
- stomach muscles
- Stomach muscles is broader everyday language and less precise than abs.
- core
- Core can include abs plus back and hip muscles, so it is wider than ab.
Word family
- abdomen noun
- The part of the body containing the stomach and other organs.
- abdominal adjective
- Relating to the abdomen, as in abdominal pain.
- abdominals noun
- Plural noun meaning the abdominal muscles, more formal than abs.
Commonly confused: ab or ad? ab or ABS?
ab vs ad
Ad is short for advertisement and differs by only one letter; abs are muscles, while ads are promotions.
ab vs ABS
Capital ABS can mean anti-lock braking system in cars, while lowercase informal abs means abdominal muscles.
Practice
Choose the most natural sentence.
Choose one answer.
Abs names muscles, so you do ab exercises rather than doing fifty abs. Hungry abs and washing abs are not natural meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ab”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.