Abs is a colloquial abbreviation for the abdominal muscles, typically referring to the rectus abdominis. In everyday use, it denotes the abdominal area as a body-part or as shorthand in fitness and medical contexts. The term is pronounced with a leading syllable stress on the single word, sounding like a clipped /æbz/. It functions as a plural noun referring to a set of muscles, often in phrases like “abs workout.”
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"He showed off his chiseled abs after months of training."
"She does sit-ups to strengthen her abs."
"The gym class focused on core stability, especially the abs."
"He injured his abs during the heavy lift and took a break from training."
Abs is a shortened form of abdominal muscles, a compound of Middle English abomen (from Old French abdomen) and Latin abdomen, from ab- away + balanced form of omen? The core term abdominal comes from Latin abdōmen, which in turn blends ab- (from the prefix meaning ‘away’) with the domestic term for the stomach’s interior—though etymologists debate the precise derivation of the -omen vs -domen suffix. In English, the plural abbreviation abs emerged in the late 20th century with the fitness culture explosion, where casual shorthand for body parts proliferated in gym and medical talk. The word quickly generalized from a strictly anatomical reference to a colloquial, performance-oriented usage (“abs workout,” “obliques and abs”). The first known written uses appear in bodybuilding magazines and sports columns of the 1960s–1980s, followed by widespread adoption in social media fitness discourse. Over time, abs has shifted from a clinical label to a popular, informal mark of athletic conditioning, with occasional humorous or emphatic connotations in casual speech.
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Words that rhyme with "abs"
-abs sounds
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Pronounce it as a single syllable /æbz/. Start with the short a as in cat, then a voiced bilabial stop /b/ immediately followed by a voiced alveolar sibilant /z/. The /æ/ stays steady; there’s no extra vowel after the /z/. In rapid speech you may hear a bit of linking into the next word, but the core pronunciation remains /æbz/. IPA: US/UK/AU: /æbz/.
Common errors include: (1) adding a second syllable, saying /ˈæbəz/ or /ˈæbzɪz/. (2) mispronouncing the final /z/ as /s/ in some speakers’ clusters, producing /æbz/ with a hiss-only end. (3) using a lax vowel like /ə/ in place of /æ/ in faster speech. To correct: keep the vowel as a short /æ/ and end with a clear /bz/ cluster; practice by saying “abz” in isolation, then in phrases, ensuring the /b/ and /z/ are distinct but smoothly connected.
In US/UK/AU broadly the same core /æbz/ remains. The rhotic vs non-rhotic nuance matters more in surrounding words than the target itself. The main differences appear in vowel quality of adjacent words and the degree of vowel length; US tends to be a quicker, more clipped /æ/; UK may have a slightly higher tongue position and crisper /z/; Australian English often features broader vowel shapes and slightly more centralized vowels in surrounding syllables, but /æbz/ remains clearly identifiable across dialects.
The difficulty lies in producing a crisp glide from the /b/ into the /z/ without an intermediate vowel, especially in rapid phrases. Many speakers also carry over a voicing mismatch when an adjacent word ends with a voiceless sound, causing the /z/ to devoice. Focus on a tight transition from /b/ to /z/ with steady voicing, and avoid tensing the jaw excessively. Regular practice with minimal pairs around /æ/ and surrounding consonants helps stabilize the articulators.
Abs has no silent letters. The word is built on a straightforward phoneme sequence: /æ/ + /b/ + /z/. Some learners might think the s remains voiceless or that the b is silent in faster speech, but both consonants are fully voiced in the standard pronunciation. Ensure you articulate /æ/ clearly, then release the /b/ with a quick, uninterrupted /z/ to maintain natural place in phrases like 'abs workout'.
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