bce

«bce» in Mova's school dictionary: BCE stands for «Before the Common Era», used after a year… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

abbreviation (BCE, B.C.E.)

meaning for a pupil

1) BCE stands for «Before the Common Era», used after a year number to show years counted backwards from the start of the usual calendar; it means the same as BC («before Christ»). tree →

2) Its partner is CE («Common Era»), which means the same as AD. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons BCE is used on timelines for ancient times, such as ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and the Stone Age. Years BCE count down towards zero (a larger number BCE is longer ago), then years CE count up. Some people prefer BCE and CE because they do not name a religion; others use BC and AD. Phrases: years BCE, BCE and CE, in the third century BCE.

examples

• The pyramids of Giza were built more than two thousand years BCE. tree →
• On our timeline, years BCE are on the left. tree →
• BCE means the same as BC. tree →
• The bigger the number BCE, the longer ago it was. tree →
• Ancient Rome was founded many centuries BCE. tree →
• Our book uses BCE and CE instead of BC and AD. tree →
• Stonehenge was built in the Stone Age, thousands of years BCE. tree →
• There is no year zero between 1 BCE and 1 CE. tree →

note

An abbreviation: written in capitals, BCE (sometimes B.C.E.), and said letter by letter «bee-see-ee». It goes after the year number. Maths trap: for BCE years, counting goes backwards, so to find how many years passed between a year BCE and a year CE, add the two numbers and take away 1 (because there is no year zero); between two years BCE, subtract the smaller from the bigger.

In the corpora

• What really happened: it was damaged by fire in 48 BCE and probably faded slowly over centuries as money and scholars left.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «bce» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.