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Glite Dictionary
BCE

BCE

1 4.4
A label that comes after a year number to show the year is before the Common Era
  • adverb
translation icon : a.C.
  • In the second century BCE, the Romans conquered Carthage in northern Africa and introduced the Roman alphabet.
  • fifth century BCE
  • century BCE

Examples

  • In the third Millennium BCE, Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on wax tablets.

  • Beginning in the 5th century BCE, the remnants of the Israelite tribes came to be referred to as Jews.

    Blog text (10)

  • But by the third Millennium BCE, summer was no longer the only empire around, or even in Mesopotamia.

  • Propertius was born in Assisi during the first century BCE.

    Academic text (2012)

  • The earliest system considered is that of Xenophanes, a natural philosopher who lived in the 6th century BCE.

    Academic text (2003)

  • More important, however, Smith adds a significant dimension to the context of the youth, arguing that both the material record and the literary record attest to a strong Greek presence on Motya in the fifth century BCE.

    Academic text (2014)

  • While Knigge and others explained this surface as picked to carry some form of bronze head covering, such as a helmet, Bell understood it as a very real hairstyle fashionable at the end of the sixth and in the early fifth century BCE.

    Academic text (2014)

  • It is distantly related to Sabaean, an alphabet brought to Abyssinia (ancient Ethiopia) from Arabia around the sixth century BCE.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The people responsible for carving the city from the red rock were the Nabataeans—an industrious, nomadic people who began to arrive at the end of the sixth century BCE.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The construction of the pyramids began in Egypt around 2500 BCE.

Synonyms

before Christ
vsBCE
2 4.8

Placed after a year number to show the year is before the birth of Jesus Christ

is the secular way to mark those years without religious wording
B.C.E.
vsBCE
5.2

A short form that shows years before the Common Era

is the same use but is the preferred neutral written form
BC
vsBCE
2.9

Placed after a year to show the year is before the birth of Christ

is the neutral alternative avoiding explicit religious reference
B.C.
vsBCE
3.4

A mark after a year that shows the year is before the birth of Jesus

is the neutral form that avoids religious wording and punctuation

Surface Forms

BCE positive

Etymology

The word BCE stands for 'Before Common Era' and is a neutral way, like BC, to show years before year 1. That is why you put the year first and then BCE, as in '400 BCE'.