ab

/æb/

/æb/

An ab is a stomach, or abdominal, muscle. Doing sit ups and crunches will help you tone your abs.

Ab is shorthand for abdominal, which comes from the Latin abdomen, "belly," and it's a common name for what's formally known as the rectus abdominus muscle. Your abs run up and down the front of your torso, on either side of your belly button. In extremely fit or muscly people with little body fat, you can actually see how the abs are separated into several sections, the so-called "six-pack."

Definitions of ab

1. noun

   the muscles of the abdomen
   synonyms: abdominal, abdominal muscle

   types:

   abdominal external oblique muscle, external oblique muscle, musculus obliquus externus abdominis, oblique

   a diagonally arranged abdominal muscle on either side of the torso

   musculus transversalis abdominis, transverse muscle of abdomen, transversus abdominis, transversus abdominis muscle

   a flat muscle with transverse fibers that forms the anterior and lateral walls of the abdominal cavity

   type of:

   skeletal muscle, striated muscle

   a muscle that is connected at either or both ends to a bone and so move parts of the skeleton; a muscle that is characterized by transverse stripes