What do the initials BC, AD, CE, BCE and the term Circa, when used with years, stand for?
BC stands for “Before Christ”, meaning before the birth of Jesus Christ, and AD stands for “Anno Domini” (Latin) which translated to English “Year of the Lord”, meaning after the birth of Jesus Christ. So BC 100 means “a hundred years before the Birth of Jesus” and AD 100 means “a hundred years after the Birth of Jesus”. Because not everybody on this planet is Christian, Catholic or any other way of believer in Jesus, the term “Common Era” is used. This is because the birth of Jesus is accepted internationally as the Common reference point for dates (in business, computers and so on). But for instance, Jews and Chinese have their own calendars. So if you don’t want for some reason to involve religion on the dates being sent to somebody, is polite to use for example 100 BCE (a hundred years Before the Common Era) or 100 CE (a hundred years after the beginning of the Common Era). Note that CE and BCE are used after the year, while BC and AD are used before the year. That people usually u
