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. It is in common use.

CE is an alternative to the AD system used by Christians but the numbering is the same: the year 2024 CE is equally 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 was created as an alternative to AD as not everyone is a Christian. However, the name Christian Era (Latin: aera christiana) is another name for 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 approximately the date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Neither system uses a year zero (0): the year before 1 CE was 1 BCE.