Anno Domini (sometimes found in the irregular form Anno Domine), abbreviated as AD or A.D., and Before Christ, abbreviated as BC or B.C., are designations used to number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The calendar era to which they refer is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus, with AD denoting years after the start of this epoch, and BC denoting years before the start of this epoch. There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC.
The Gregorian calendar, and the year numbering system associated with it, is the calendar system with the most widespread usage in the world today. For decades, it has been the unofficial global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union. It is also a basis of scholarly dating, though some people adopt the Common/Christian Era labels, retaining the same numeric values but using the label "CE" (Common/Christian Era) instead of "AD", and "BCE" (Before the Common/Christian Era) instead of "BC".
The term Anno Domini is Medieval Latin, translated as In the year of (the/Our) Lord.[1][2]:782 It is sometimes specified more fully as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ").
Traditionally, English has copied Latin usage by placing the abbreviation before the year number for AD; since BC is not derived from Latin it is placed after the year number (for example: 64 BC, but AD 2009). However, placing the AD after the year number (as in "2009 AD") is now also common. The abbreviation is also widely used after the number of a century or millennium, as in "4th century AD" or "2nd millennium AD" (although conservative usage formerly rejected such expressions).[3]
Because B.C. is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, some people incorrectly conclude that A.D. must mean After Death, i.e., after the death of Jesus. If that were true, the thirty-three or so years of his life would not be in any era.[4]
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