Common Era

Common Era (CE; Latin: aera vulgaris) is a method used to identify a year. It means "a year in our time" (rather than a year a very long time ago). It is the system for recording dates used almost everywhere around the world today.

CE is an alternative to the AD system used by Christians, but the numbering is the same: the year 2024 CE is equal to AD 2024 (but usually we just say "the year is 2024"). AD is an abbreviation of the Latin: anno domini, lit. 'year of the lord'. The CE method is used as an alternative to AD as not everyone is a Christian. However, the name Christian Era (Latin: aera christiana) has the same acronym as the name Common Era.

When writing about calendars, an era is span of dates, starting from a particular moment in time. In the case of both CE and AD, that start date is after the date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Neither system uses a year zero (0); the year before 1 CE was 1 BCE.

Before Common Era

Before Common Era (BCE) is the system for the years "Before the Common Era". BCE uses the same numbering as BC (Before Christ). "CE" and "BCE" are placed after the year number. Thus we write "Our year is 2024 CE" or "Artaxerxes III of Persia was born in 425 BCE."

Usage of Common Era notation began about 1615 among Christians in Europe, and has been growing among non-Christians and among Christians who desire to be sensitive to non-Christians.

Related pages

• Calendar
• Gregorian calendar
• Jewish calendar
• Islamic calendar