A.D. meaning in Etymology Dictionary
1570s, from Latin Anno Domini "12 months for the Lord." Put forth by Dionysius Exiguus in 527 or 533 C.E., but utilized in the beginning only for Church business. Introduced in Italy in 7c., France (partly) in 8c. In The united kingdomt, first found in a charter of 680 C.E. Ordained for all ecclesiastical documents in The united kingdomt because of the Council of Chelsea, July 27, 816. The resistance to it in part might have come because Dionysius chose 754 A.U.C. since the beginning year of Jesus, although very early Christians could have believed it was 750 A.U.C. [See John J. Bond, "Handy-Book of Rules and Tables for Verifying Dates because of the Christian Era," 4th ed., London: George Bell & Sons, 1889] A.C., for Anno Christi, additionally was typical 17c.
A.D. meaning in General Dictionary
in the Christian era; utilized before dates after the supposed year Christ was born
Sentence Examples with the word A.D.
That for six thousand years--and no one knows how many millions of ages before--the great whales should have been spouting all over the sea, and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep, as with so many sprinkling or mistifying pots; and that for some centuries back, thousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the whale, watching these sprinklings and spoutings--that all this should be, and yet, that down to this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter minutes past one o'clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D. 1851), it should still remain a problem, whether these spoutings are, after all, really water, or nothing but vapour--this is surely a noteworthy thing.