BC and AD are labels for years on the timeline used in the Gregorian calendar, and both are based on the traditional date of the birth of Jesus.

Quick Scoop

  • BC means “Before Christ” and refers to all years before the traditional birth year of Jesus Christ.
  • AD means “Anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord,” and refers to all years after that birth year.
  • There is no “year 0” in this system: it goes 1 BC, then AD 1.
  • Today, people also use BCE (“Before Common Era”) and CE (“Common Era”) as more neutral alternatives to BC and AD, but the year numbers are the same.

Mini Breakdown: How the Timeline Works

  • Years BC count backward as you go further into the past (100 BC is earlier than 50 BC).
  • Years AD (or CE) count forward from year 1 up to the present and beyond.
  • Traditionally:
    • 44 BC → Julius Caesar’s assassination, “44 years before Christ.”
* AD 2026 (or 2026 CE) → “2026 years in the year of our Lord / in the Common Era.”

A common misconception is that AD means “after death,” but that’s incorrect; it is Latin Anno Domini (“in the year of our Lord”).

Why People Also Say BCE/CE

Because BC and AD are explicitly Christian in origin, many historians, schools, and museums now use:

  • BCE = Before Common Era (same years as BC).
  • CE = Common Era (same years as AD).

So:

  • 500 BC = 500 BCE
  • AD 2026 = 2026 CE

The number of the year doesn’t change—only the label and its religious/neutral tone.

Little Story Example

Imagine a long history timeline on your wall:

  1. You put a big mark in the middle and label it “Birth of Jesus.”
  2. Everything to the left you label with BC and count down: 5 BC, 4 BC, 3 BC, 2 BC, 1 BC.
  1. Immediately to the right you start AD 1 , then AD 2, AD 3, and so on, all the way to AD 2026.

If you swap in BCE/CE, the positions stay the same; you just change the abbreviations.

Tiny FAQ

Does BC come before AD?
Yes. Any BC year is earlier in history than any AD year (e.g., 500 BC is much earlier than AD 500).

Is there a year 0 between BC and AD?
No. The system jumps directly from 1 BC to AD 1.

Is BC/AD still used today?
Yes, especially in religious and some traditional contexts, though BCE/CE is increasingly common in academic and secular settings.

TL;DR:

  • BC = Before Christ.
  • AD = Anno Domini (“in the year of our Lord”).
    Both are ways of numbering years around the traditional birth of Jesus; BCE/CE are the same system with more neutral names.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.