A.D.
Anno Domini (AD) and before Christ (BC) designate years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Anno Domini is Medieval Latin for "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", taken from the full original phrase "anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi", which translates to "in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ". "BC" is specific to English, and equivalent abbreviations are used in other languages: the Latin form, rarely used in English, is ante Christum natum (ACN) or ante Christum (AC).
This calendar era takes as its epoch the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus. Years AD are counted forward since that epoch and years BC are counted backward from the epoch. There is no year zero in this scheme; thus the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by the Eastern Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus but was not widely used until the 9th century. Modern scholars believe that the actual date of the birth of Jesus was about 5 BC.
To avoid religious associations, many writers and scholars use CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before the Common Era) instead of AD and BC.
Astronomical year numbering and ISO 8601 do not use words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years (but not for BC years since the astronomical year 0 is 1 BC).
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