Definition of "ARC"

ARC¹

noun
countable and uncountable, plural ARCs
1. (publishing) Acronym of advance reader's copy, a copy of a book given to a reviewer free in advance for review purposes.
  Quotations
  “One of them came up to me in a signing line and asked for a blurb,” says Jen. “Can you believe it? Title I’ve never heard of, from some small press I’ve never heard of, and she comes up to me with a bound ARC, beaming, like of course I’m going to say yes.”
  2023, R. F. Kuang, Yellowface, The Borough Press, page 90
2. (pathology) Initialism of AIDS-related complex.
3. (programming, uncountable) Acronym of Automatic Reference Counting.
proper noun
1. Initialism of American Red Cross.

ARC²

proper noun
1. (nautical, military) The Colombian Navy (Armada de la República de Colombia).
adjective
not comparable
1. (nautical, military, initialism) ship's prefix for warships of the navy of Colombia.