List of acronyms and initialisms

This is a list of acronyms, initialisms and pseudo-blends.

For the purposes of this list, an acronym is an abbreviation that is pronounced as a series of constituent letters; an initialism is an abbreviation whose pronunciation is wholly or partly the names of constituent letters; and a pseudo-blend is an abbreviation whose extra or omitted letters means that it cannot be considered a true acronym, initialism, or portmanteau (a word formed by combining two or more words).

(a) = acronym in the example: SARS - (a) Severe acute respiratory syndrome

(i) = initialism in the example: CD - (i) Compact disc

(p) = pseudo-blend in the example: UNIFEM - (p) United Nations Development Fund for Women

(s) = symbol (none of the above, stands for and is read as something else; for example: MHz - Megahertz)

Add new entries here

Please add your own, in a quasi-dictionary order with lowercase treated the same as uppercase and ignoring non-alphanumeric characters (hyphens and such). This means that only alphanumeric characters are significant to determine the order, and that lowercase letters occupy the same ordering position as uppercase (as a tie-breaker, lower case is listed first). For example: Algol appears before ALS. This differs from a strict ASCII ordering.

0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Non-alphabetic

0-9

2D - (i) Two-Dimensional
2.5D - (p) "Two-and-a-half-dee": two-dimensional computer graphics imitating 3D
2G - (i) Second-generation mobile (cellular, wireless) telephone system
2.5G - (p) Second-and-a-half-generation mobile telephone system
3D - (i) Three-dimensional
3G - (i) Third-generation mobile telephone system
3M - (i) Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
4D - (i) Four-dimensional (usually three spatial plus one temporal dimension, sometimes 4 spatial ones)
4G - (i) Fourth-generation mobile telephone system
4GL - (i) Fourth-generation programming language
4WD - (i) Four Wheel Drive (cf. AWD)

A

A - (s) Ampere
A2ATD - (i) Anti-Armor Advanced Technology Demonstration
A4 - (i) many, including a European standard office paper size; see entry

AA

AA - (i) Achieved Availability - Alcoholics Anonymous - Assembly Area - Automobile Association - (s) Armed Forces Americas (postal symbol)
AAA - (i) Administration, Authorization, and Authentication - American Automobile Association ("Triple-A") - Anti-Aircraft Artillery
AAAV - (i) Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle
AAD - (i) Analogue Analogue Digital - Australian Antarctic Division
AAIS - (i) Advanced Airborne Interceptor Simulator
AAM - (i) Air-to-Air Missile
AAODL - (i) Atmospheric Aerosols and Optics Data Library
AAP - (i) Advanced Acquisition Plan - Allied Administrative Publication
AAR - (i) Association of American Railroads
AARP - (i) formerly American Association of Retired Persons, but now officially known only by the initials
AAS - (i) Advanced Automation System - American Astronomical Society; pronounced "Double-A S"
AAV - (i) Amphibious Assault Vehicle
AAWC - (i) Anti-Air Warfare Commander

AB

AB - (s) Alberta (postal symbol)
ABA - (i) American Bar Association / American Basketball Association / Australian Broadcasting Authority
ABB - (i) ASEA Brown Boveri (Swiss-Swedish multinational company)
ABBA - (a) Agneta, Benny, Björn, Anni-Frid (the Swedish pop group)
ABC - (i) Alcoholic-Beverage Commission - Alien Big Cat - Always Be Careful - American-Born Chinese - American Broadcasting Company - Anti-lock Brake Controller - Associated British Corporation - Atanasoff Berry Computer - Atlantic Baptist College - Atomic Biological Chemical (see NBC) - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ABET - (a) Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
ABIN - (a) Agência Brasileira de Inteligência (Brazilian Intelligence Agency)
ABL - (i) American Basketball League
ABLE - (a) AirBorne Law Enforcement (police air support unit)
ABM - (i) Anti-Ballistic Missile - Asynchronous Balanced Mode - Automated Banking Machine
ABN - (i) Australian Business Number - a number issued by the Australian government as registration of a business (used for taxation purposes)
ABS - (i) acrylonitrile butadiene styrene - Anti-lock Braking System

AC

Ac - (s) Actinium
AC - (i) Adriamycin-Cyclophosphamide (chemotherapy) - Air Conditioning - Albert Champion - Alternating Current - Anonymous Coward - Ante Christum - (s) Antigua and Barbuda (NATO country code) - (i) Associazione Calcio (Italian, "football (soccer) club")
A/C - (i) Aircraft
ACA - (i) Airspace Co-ordination Area
ACC - (i) Air Combat Command - Atlantic Coast Conference - Automatic Climate Control
ACCAC - (a) Awdurdod Cymwysterau, Cwricwlwm ac Asesu Cymru (Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales)
ACE - (a) Air Combat Emulator (computer game) - Automatic Computing Engine
ACES - (a) Aerolineas Centrales de Colombia
ACID - (a) Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (in databases)
ACF - (i) American Car and Foundry, American Culinary Federation
ACK - (p) Acknowledge (telecommunications) (cf. NAK)
ACL - (i) Access Control List - Anterior Cruciate Ligament
ACLU - (i) American Civil Liberties Union
ACM - (i) many, including Association for Computing Machinery; see entry
ACN - (i) Australian Company Number - a number issued by the Australian government as registration of a company (limited liability) in Australia.
ACORN - (i) Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
ACP - (i) Air Control Point
ACS - (i) Affiliated Computer Services (NYSE ACS) - American Cancer Society - American Chemical Society - Association of Caribbean States
ACTU - (i) Australian Council of Trade Unions
ACV - (i) Armoured Combat Vehicle

AD-AE

AD - (i) Air Defence - Latin, Anno Domini ("In the year of our Lord")
A/D - (i) Analog/Digital
ADA - (i) American Dental Association / Americans with Disabilities Act (but see also the similar, but non-acronymic, Ada as in Ada programming language)
ADatP - (p) Automated Data Processing
ADC - (i) Apple Display Connector
ADD - (i) Analogue Digital Digital - Attention-Deficit Disorder
ADP - (i) Adenosine DiPhosphate - Automated Data Processing
ADHD - (i) Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHS - (i) Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome
ADL - (i) Anti-Defamation League
ADM - (i) Administrative - Archer Daniels Midland
ADS - (a/i) Astrophysics Data System - Attention Deficit Syndrome
ADT - (i) Atlantic Daylight Time (UTC-3 hours)
AE - (s) Armed Forces Africa/Canada/Europe/Middle East (postal symbol)
AEF - (i) American Expeditionary Force
AEW - (i) Airborne Electronic Warfare - Airborne Early Warning

AF-AG

AF - (s) Afghanistan (NATO country code) - (i) Air Force
AFAIC - (i) As Far As I'm Concerned
AFAICT - (i) As Far As I Can Tell
AFAIK - (i) As Far As I Know
AFAIR - (i) As Far As I Remember/Recall
AFC - (i) American Football Conference - Asian Football Confederation
AFJ - (i) April Fool's Joke
AFK - (i) Away From Keyboard (Internet chat abbreviation)
AFL - (i) American Federation of Labor - American Football League - Arena Football League - Australian Football League
AFV - (i) Armoured Fighting Vehicle
Ag - (s) Silver
AG - (i) Aktiengesellschaft (German for incorporated) - (s) Algeria (NATO country code)
AGA - (a/i) AB Gas-accumulator ("ah-gah", Swedish company) - Advanced Graphics Architecture
AGB - (i) Internal Nintendo initialism for Game Boy Advance.
AGC - (i) Apollo Guidance Computer - Automatic Gain Control
AGI - (i) Auxiliary Group Intelligence
AGM - (i) Annual General Meeting
AGP - (i) Accelerated Graphics Port

AI-AM

AI - (i) Amnesty International - Artificial Insemination - Artificial Intelligence
AIA - (i) Aerospace Industry Association
AIC - (i) African Independent Church
AICMFP - (i) And I Claim My Five Pounds
AIDS - (a) Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
AIM - (i) many, including AOL Instant Messenger; see entry
AIPAC - (i) American Israel Public Affairs Committee
AJ - (s) Azerbaijan (NATO country code)
AK - (s) Alaska (postal symbol)
aka - (i) also known as
AKDT - (i) Alaska Standard Daylight Saving Time (UTC-8 hours)
AKST - (i) Alaska Standard Time (UTC-9 hours)
Al - (s) Aluminium
AL - (s) Alabama (postal symbol) - Albania (NATO country code) - Anno Lucis, the "Year of Light" in Masonic tradition (Most often seen on plaques bearing the founding dates of buildings, in years AD and years AL)
ALAP - (a) As Long/Late As Possible
ALGOL - (a) Algorithmic language
ALS - (i) Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Am - (s) Americium
AM - (i) many, including Amplitude Modulation and ante meridiem; see entry - (s) Armenia (NATO country code)
AMA - (i) American Medical Association
AMD - (i) Advanced Micro Devices (U.S. company)
AMP - (i) Adenosine MonoPhosphate
AMRAAM - (a) Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile
AMS - (i) American Mathematical Society

AN-AR

AN - (s) Andorra (NATO country code)
ANA - (a) All Nippon Airways - Anti-Nuclear Anti-body
ANC - (i) African National Congress
ANGLiCo - (a) Air/Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
ANM - (i) Acoustic Noise Monitor
ANSI - (a) American National Standards Institute
ANZAC - (a) Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
AO - (s) Angola (NATO country code) - (i) Area of Operations
AOL - (i) America OnLine
AP - (i) Advanced Placement - (s) Armed Forces Pacific (postal symbol) - (i) Associated Press
APB - (i) All Points Bulletin (police jargon)
APC - (i) Armoured Personnel Carrier
APM - (i) Advanced Power Management
APOD - (i) Airport of Debarkation
APOE - (i) Airport of Embarkation
APP - (i) Allied Procedural Publication
Ar - (s) Argon
AR - (s) Argentina (NATO country code) - Arkansas (postal symbol)
ARSC - (i) Artic Region Supercomputing Center

AS

As - (s) Arsenic
AS - (s) American Samoa (postal symbol) - Australia (NATO country code)
ASA - (i) AceteSalicylic Acid - American Standards Association - Army Security Agency - Atlantic Southeast Airlines
ASAP - (a) As Soon As Possible
ASCAP - (a) American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
ASCC - (i) Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator
ASCII - (a) American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASDF - (i) Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release (sound envelope specification)
ASEAN - (i) Association of SouthEast Asian Nations
ASFAR - (a) Americans for a Society Free of Age Restrictions
ASIC - (a) Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
ASICS - (a) Latin, Anima Sana In Corpore Sano ("A Sound Mind in a Sound Body") (athletic shoe manufacturer)
ASIO - (i) Australian Security Intelligence Office
ASL - (i) American Sign Language
ASM - (i) Air To Surface Missile
ASP - (i) Active Server Pages - Ammunition Supply Point - Application Service Provider (cf ISP)
ASQ - (a) American Society for Quality
ASR - (i) Alternate Supply Route
ASRAAM - (a) Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile
AST - (i) Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4 hours)
ASTREA - (a) Aerial Support To Regional Enforcement Agencies (sheriff's air support unit)
ASUW - (i) Antisurface Warfare
ASW - (i) Antisubmarine Warfare

AT-AZ

At - (s) Astatine
AT - (i) Anti-Tank
ATAC - (a) Air Transportable Acoustic Communications
ATAS - (a) Air-To-Air Stinger (missile)
ATB - (i) Active Time Battle.
ATC - (i) Air Traffic Control
ATM - (i) Automated Teller Machine - Asynchronous Transfer Mode - At The Moment
ATP - (i) Adenosine TriPhosphate - Allied Tactical Publication - Ammunition Transfer Point
AT&T - (i) American Telephone and Telegraph (U.S. company, aka "Ma Bell")
ATI - (i) Allied Telesyn International, Inc.
ATV - (i) All-Terrain Vehicle
Au - (s) Gold
AU - (s) Austria (NATO country code)
AUC - (i) Latin, Ab Urbe Condita ("from the founding of the city") / Anno Urbis Conditae ("in the year since the founding of the city") (of Rome) - Area Under the Curve (concentration time curve; medicine)
AVI - (i) Audio Video Interleave
AVO - (i) Apprehended Violence Order
AWACS - (a) Airborne Warning And Control System
AWD - (i) many, including All Wheel Drive; see entry
AWOL - (a) Absent Without Official Leave - Absent Without Leave (military jargon)
AXP - (i) Ambulance Exchange Point
AYU - (i) As Yet Unknown
AZ - (s) Arizona (postal symbol)

B

B - (s) Bel - Boron
B2B - (i) Business-to-business electronic commerce
B2C - (i) Business-to-consumer electronic commerce
B2E - (i) Business-to-employee electronic commerce
B&W - (i) Babcock & Wilcox - Black and White - Bowers & Wilkins

BA-BC

Ba - (s) Barium
BA - (i) Bachelor of Arts
BAA - (i) British Airport Authority
BALCO - (a) Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative
BAR - (a) British American Racing - Browning Automatic Rifle - Buy-American restrictions
BART - (a) Bay Area Rapid Transit
BASE - (a) as in BASE jumping - Building, Antenna, Span, Earth (form)
BASF - (i) Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (German chemicals company)
BASIC - (a) Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (acronym was added later, originally it was simply Basic)
BATF - (i) U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
BB - (i) Boys' Brigade (Christian youth organisation) - Brigitte Bardot (actress)
BBB - (i) Better Business Bureau - Blood-Brain Barrier
BBC - (i) British Broadcasting Corporation
BBQ - (i) Barbeque
BC - (i) Before Christ - Blind Copy (in emailers) - Boston College - (s) British Columbia (postal symbol)
BCC - (i) Blind Carbon Copy
BCCI - (i) Board of Control for Cricket in India
BCD - (i) Binary-Coded Decimal
BCE - (i) Banque centrale européenne - Before Common Era - British Columbia Electric
BCER - (i) British Columbia Electric Railway
BCFG - (i) Patchy Fog (METAR Code)
BCPL - (i) BCPL programming language (progenitor of C)
BCS - (i) Bowl Championship Series (US college football)
BCT - (i) Brigade Combat Team

BD-BN

BDA - (i) British Dental Association
BDFL - (i) Benevolent Dictator For Life
BDNF - (i) Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
BDOS - (a) Basic Disk Operating System; part of CP/M
BDU - (i) Battle-Dress Uniform
Be - (s) Beryllium
BEA - British European Airways (ancestor of British Airways)
BFE - (i) Beyond/Butt/Bum F*****' Egypt (colloquial for "quite far away")
Bh - (s) Bohrium
Bi - (s) Bismuth
BIAP - (a) Baghdad International Airport
BIOS - (a) Basic Input/Output System
BIST - (a) Built-In Self-Test
BIT - (i) Bilateral Investment Treaty - Built-In Test
BJT - (i) Bipolar Junction Transistor
Bk - (s) Berkelium
BKN - (i) Broken Sky (METAR Code)
BLDU - (i) Blowing Dust (METAR Code)
BLSA - (i) Blowing Sand (METAR Code)
BLSN - (i) Blowing Snow (METAR Code)
BLUI - (a/i) Body Language User Interface
BMCC - (i) Borough of Manhattan Community College
BME - (i) Biomedical Engineering
BMI - (i) Broadcast Music Incorporated - Body Mass Index
BMW - (i) Bayerische Motoren Werke / Bavarian Motor Works
BMX - (i) Bicycle/Bike Moto(r) Cross
Bn - (s) Battalion
BNF - (i) Backus-Naur Form (computing)
BNS - (i) Bank of Nova Scotia
BNSF - (i) Burlington Northern Santa Fe

BO-BR

BO2K - (i) Back Orifice 2000
BOAC - (i) British Overseas Airways Corporation (predecessor of British Airways)
BOAT - (a) Byway Open to All Traffic (pronounced as 2 syllables, "Bo-At")
BODMAS - (a) Brackets, Of, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction
BOFH - (i) Bastard Operator From Hell
BOGOF - (a) Buy One, Get One Free
BOHICA - (a) Bend Over Here It Comes Again
BOP - (i) Balance of Payments
BOS - (i) Battlefield Operating System
BOT - (i) Balance of Trade
BP - (i) British Petroleum (today, BP doesn't officially stand for everything)
BPM - (i) Beats Per Minute
Br - (s) Bromine
BRB - (i) "Be Right Back" (Internet chat abbreviation)
BRFSS - (a) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (a CDC health survey covering the US and US territories; pronounced "BURF us")

BS-BY

BS - (i) Bull Shit
BSA - (i) Birmingham Small Arms (motorcycles company) - Boy Scouts of America - Brigade Support Area
BSD - (i) Berkeley Software Distribution (distinct from BSoD)
BSE - (i) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, better known as Mad Cow disease
BSL - (i) British Sign Language
BSoD - (i) Blue Screen of Death (distinct from BSD)
BSP - (i) Between-Show Promotion - Binary Space Partitioning - Board Support Packages - (p) Business Sponsored
BST - (i) Binary search tree - Blended Sales Tax - Bovine somatotropin - British Summer Time
BT - (i) Bathythermograph - British Telecommunications plc - BitTorrent
BTO - (i) Built To Order
BTU - (i) British Thermal Unit
BTW - (i) By The Way
BWARS - (a) Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society
BWR - (i) Boiling-Water Reactor
BYOB - (i) Bring Your Own Beverages/Bottle
BYOC - (i) Bring Your Own Computer. Play on BYOB.
BYU - (i) Brigham Young University

C

C - (s) Carbon - Coulomb
C2 or C² - (i) Command and Control
C2V or C²V - (i) Command and Control Vehicle
C3I or C³I - (i) Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence
C4I or C⁴I - (i) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence

CA-CD

Ca - (s) Calcium
CA - (s) California (postal symbol) - Canada - Catalonia
CA - (i) Civil Affairs
CAC - (i) California Association of Criminalists
CAD - (a) Computer Aided Design - Computer Aided Dispatch
CAIR - (i) Council on American-Islamic Relations
CALABARZON - (p) a region in the Philippines: Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon (not an acronym in the strictest sense)
CAMRA - (a) CAMpaign for Real Ale
CANDU - (p) CANada Deuterium Uranium, a nuclear reactor design
CAP - (i) Combat Air Patrol
CARE - (a) Cooperative for Aid and Relief Everywhere (originally C.A.R.E. - Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe)
CARP - (i) Computed Air Release Point
CAS - (i) Close Air Support
CASS - (i) Command Activated Sonobuoy System
CATK - (i) Counterattack
CAV - (i) Cavalry
CAW - Canadian Auto Workers trade union
CB - (i) citizens' band radio
CBC - (i) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - Cipher Block Chaining
CBE - (i) Commander of the Order of the British Empire
CBM - (i) many, including Canadian Baptist Ministries and Commodore Business Machines; see entry
CBT - (i) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Combat
CC - (i) many, including carbon copy; see entry
CCCP - (i) Cyrillic for SSSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) - Central Committee of the Communist Party
CCD - (i) charge-coupled device
CCP - (i) Casualty Collection Point - Communications Checkpoint - Contingency Communications Package
CCRAp - (a) Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance party
cd - (s) Candela
Cd - (s) Cadmium
CD - (i) many, including Compact disc; see entry
CDC - (i) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Control Data Corporation
CDF - (i) California Department of Forestry [and Fire Protection]

CE-CH

Ce - (s) Cerium
CE - (i) [many meanings, including Christian/Common Era (cf. AD); see entry]
CENTO - (a) Central Treaty Organization (Baghdad Pact)
CEO - (i) Chief Executive Officer
CEPT - (a/i) Conference européenne des administrations des postes et des télécommunications (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations)
CERN - (a) Centre européen pour la recherche nucléaire
CERT - (a) Computer Emergency Response Team
cf. - (i) Latin, confer ("compare", or "see also")
Cf - (s) Californium
CF - Canadian Forces
CFA - (i) Cat Fanciers' Association - Chartered Financial Analyst - Colour Filtering Array - County Fire Authority - Covering Force Area
CFG - (i) Context-Free Grammar - Control Flow Graph
CFL - (i) Canadian Football League - Co-ordinated Fire Line
CFLCC - (i) Coalition Forces Land Component Command
CFO - (i) Chief Financial Officer
CFS - (i) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
CFSP - (i) Common Foreign and Security Policy
CGM - (i) Computer Graphics Metafile
CGT - (i) Capital Gains Tax
CHI - Computer-Human Interaction
CHiP - (a) California Highway Patrol
CHP - (i) California Highway Patrol

CI-CM

Ci - (s) Curie
CI - (i) Counter-Intelligence
CIA - (i) Central Intelligence Agency - Culinary Institute of America
CIB - (i) Complete in box (of items on Internet auction/trading listings)
CIBC - (i) once the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
CICS - (a) Customer Information Control System (IBM mainframe software)
CID - (i) Criminal Investigation Division - Criminal Investigations Department
CIÉ - (i) Commission internationale de l'éclairage
CINC - (i) Commander in Chief
CIO - (i) Chief information officer - Congress of Industrial Organizations
CIS - (i) Commonwealth of Independent States - Canadian Interuniversity Sport
CISB - (i) Complete in sealed box (of items on Internet auction/trading listings)
CIWS - Close-in weapon system
CJ - (i) Criminal Justice
CJC - (i) Canadian Jewish Congress
Cl - (s) Chlorine
CL - (i) Co-ordination Line
CLEC - (i) Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
CLEMARS - (a) California Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Radio System
CLI - (i) Command Line Interface/Interpreter
Cm - (s) Curium
CMHC - (i) Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
CML - (i) Chemical
CMM - (i) Capability Maturity Model
CMOS - (i) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor - Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
CMR - (i) Coaxial Main Rotors (helicopter type)
CMYK - (i) cyan magenta yellow key (colour model)

CN-CQ

CN - (i) Canadian National
CND - (i) Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
CNN - (i) Cable News Network - Cellular nonlinear network
CNR - (i) Canadian National Railway
c/o - (i) care of (postal code indicating temporary address change)
Co - (s) Cobalt
CO - (i) many, including Central Office (phone company) - see entry - (s) Colorado (postal symbol) - (i) Commanding Officer
COA - (i) Course Of Action
COBOL (a) - Common Business-Oriented Language
COD - (i) Cash On Delivery
COLA - (a) cost of living adjustment - comp.os.linux.announce
COLT - (a) Combat Observation and Lasing Team
COMMZ - (p) Communications Zone
CONCACAF - (a) Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
CONMEBOL - (p) Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (South American Football Confederation)
COO - (i) Chief Operating Officer
COSCOM - (a) Corps Support Command
COSER - (i) COoperative SERvice
COTS - (a) Commercial Off The Shelf
CP - (i) Canadian Pacific - Check Point
CPA - (i) Certified Public Accountant
CPAC - (i) Conservative Political Action Conference - Canadian Parliamentary Affairs Channel
CPPCC - (i) Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
CPR - (i) Canadian Pacific Railway - CardioPulmonary Resuscitation
CPSU - (i) Communist Party of the Soviet Union
CPU - (i) Central Processing Unit
CQD - (i) come quick, distress (?)

CR-CW

Cr - (s) Chrome
CRC - (i) Christian Reformed Church - Cyclic Redundancy Check - Chemical Rubber Company
CREB - (a) Cyclic AMP-response Element Binding (protein)
CREEP - (a) Committee to Re-Elect the President
CRM - (i) Customer Relationship Management - Cardiac Rhythm Management
CRT - (i) cathode ray tube - Chinese remainder theorem - Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy
CRTC - (i) Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Cs - (s) Cesium
CS - (i) Combat Support
CSA - (i) Confederate States of America - Canadian Standards Association - Canadian Space Agency - Child Support Agency - Czech Airlines - Community-supported agriculture
C/S/A - (i) CINC, Service, and Agency
CSAR - (p) Combat Search and Rescue ("seessar")
CSI - (i) see entry
CSICOP - (i) Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
CSIS - (p) Canadian Security Intelligence Service ("seesiss") - (i) Center for Strategic & International Studies
CSRF - (i) Cross-site request forgery
CSS - (i) Cascading Style Sheets - Combat Service Support - Confederate States Ship - Content-Scrambling System - Cross Site Scripting
CT - (s) Connecticut (postal symbol)
CTO - (i) Chief technical officer
CTSS - (i) Compatible Time-Sharing System
Cu - (s) Copper
CUNY - (a) City University of New York (usually pronounced "CUE-knee")
CUPE - (i) Canadian Union of Public Employees
CUPW - (i) Canadian Union of Postal Workers
CV - (i) many, including curriculum vitae (resumé); see entry
CVR - (i) Cockpit voice recorder
CVS - (i) Concurrent Versions System
CWC - (i) Chemical Weapons Convention

D

D - (s) Deuterium

DA-DE

DAQ - (p) Data acquisition
DART - (a) Dublin Area Rapid Transit
DASL - (i) Datapoint's Advanced Systems Language
Db - (s) Dubnium
d/b/a - (i) doing business as
DBE - (i) Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
DC - (i) da capo - Italian Democrazia Cristiana - direct current - (s) District of Columbia (postal symbol) - (i) Douglas Aircraft Company - Dublin Core - duty cycle
DCA - (i) Defensive Counter Air
DD - (i) many, including dear daughter (increasingly prevalent on social mailing lists, blogs, and bulletin boards); see entry
D&D - (i) Dungeons and Dragons
DDA - (i) digital differential analyzer
DDD - (i) Data Display Debugger - Digital Digital Digital (CD mastering)
DDoS - (i) Distributed Denial of Service
DDR - (i) Dance Dance Revolution - Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany, English abbr.: GDR, qv.) - Double Data Rate
DDS - (i) Doctor of Dental Surgery
DDT - (i) Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (insecticide) - Dynamic Debugging Tool (computing)
DE - (s) Delaware (postal symbol)
DEA - (i) Drug Enforcement Agency
DEC - (a/i) Department of Environmental Conservation - Digital Equipment Corporation - Disasters Emergency Committee
DECT - (a) Digital European Cordless Telephone
DFSP - (i) Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans

DG-DL

DGZ - (i) Desired Ground Zero
DH - (i) dear husband (increasingly prevalent on social mailing lists, blogs, and bulletin boards) - Designated hitter
DHS - (i) Department of Homeland Security
DHSS - (i) Department of Health and Social Security
DIA - (i) Defense Intelligence Agency
DICASS - (a) DIrectional Command Activated Sonobuoy System
DIFAR - (a) DIrectional Frequency Analysis and Recording
DIMM - (a) Dual In-line Memory Module (computing)
DINK - (a) Double Income, No Kids
DIP - (a) Dual In-line Package (electronics)
DISA - (a) Defense Information Systems Agency
DISCOM - (a) Division Support Command
DIY - (i) Do It Yourself
DLIC - (i) Detachment Left-in-Contact
DLRP - (i) Data Link Reference Point

DM-DQ

DMA - (i) Defense Mapping Agency - Direct Memory Access (computing)
DMD - (i) Digital Micromirror Device - Digital Multilayer Disk - Doctor of Dental Medicine
DMSO - (p) Defense Modeling & Simulation Office (US) ("dimso")
DMT - (i) Dimethyltryptamine
DMV - (i) Department of Motor Vehicles
DMZ - (i) DeMilitarized Zone
DNA - (i) DeoxyriboNucleic Acid - Douglas Adams
DND - (i) Department of National Defence (Canada) - Do Not Disturb
DOA - (i) Dead On Arrival - Dead or Alive
DOD - (i) Department of Defense (US)
DOE - (i) Department of Energy (US)
DOI - (a) Digital Object Identifier
DOM - (i) Document Object Model
DOS - (a) Denial of Service (DoS, cf. DDoS) - Density of State - Disk Operating System
DPCO - (i) Double-Pole Change Over
DPDT - (i) Double-Pole Double-Throw
DPRK - (i) Democratic People's Republic of Korea
DPST - (i) Double-Pole Single-Throw
DQ - (i) Dairy Queen

DR-DS

DR - (i) Dead Reckoning
DRA - (i) Democratic Republic of America
DRAM - (p) Dynamic Random Access Memory ("dee-ram") (computing)
DRC - (i) Democratic Republic of the Congo
DRDC - (i) Defence Research & Development Canada
DREA - (i) Defence Research Establishment Atlantic (obsolete)
DRES - (i) Defence Research Establishment Suffield (obsolete)
DRET - (i) Defence Research Establishment Toronto (obsolete)
DREV - (i) Defence Research Establishment Valcartier (obsolete)
DRL - (i) Daytime Running Lights - Dorman Roberts Ltd.
DRPR - (i) Drawing Practices
Ds - (s) Darmstadtium
DS - (i) Dear son (increasingly prevalent on social mailing lists, blogs, and bulletin boards) - Defence Scientist - Dust Storm (METAR Code)
DSA - (i) Division Support Area
DSRV - (i) Deaf Sports Recreation Victoria - Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle

DT-DZ

DTE - (i) Data Terminal Equipment - Down To Earth
DTG - (i) Date-Time Group
DTL - (i) diode-transistor logic (electronics)
DTRA - (i) Defence Threat Reduction Agency
DU - (i) Depleted Uranium - Dust (METAR Code)
DUI - (i) Data Use Identifier - Data Use Institute - Davis Unified Ignition - Diving Unlimited International - Documento Único de Identidad - Documento Unico de Importación - Driving Under the Influence - Duke University Improv
DVD - (i) Digital Versatile Disk (was Digital Video Disk)
DVM - (i) Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
DWI - (i) Dance With Intensity - Danish West Indies - Diffusion-weighted imaging - Direct water injection - Disaster Welfare Inquiry - Drinking Water Inspectorate - Driving While Intoxicated/Impaired
Dy - (s) Dysprosium
DZ - (i) Drizzle (METAR Code) - Drop Zone

E

E - (s) East
E³ - (i) Electronic Entertainment Expo and other meanings, see entry

EA-EJ

EA - (i) Electronic Attack - Engagement Area
EAFUS - (i) "Everything" Added to Food in the United States (FDA list)
EBCDIC - (a/i) Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (pronounced "eb-see-dik") (cf. BCD)
EBE - (i) Extraterrestrial Biological Entity
EBW - (i) Exploding BridgeWire
EC - (i) Electronic Combat - European Community (see EEC)
ECL - (i) Emitter Coupled Logic (electronics)
ECS - (i) Extended Chip Set (computing)
ECT - (i) ElectroConvulsive Therapy
EDS - (i) Electronic Data Systems
EEC - (i) European Economic Community (predecessor of the EU, qv.)
eID - electronic ID
EEG - (i) Electroencephalogram
EFF - (i) Electronic Frontier Foundation
e.g. - (i) example gratis (Latin, roughly "for example", "for instance")

EK-EM

EKG - (i) Electrocardiogram (from German, Elektrokardiogramm)
ELF (sometimes pronounced "elf") - (i) Earth Liberation Front - Endangered Language Fund - Eritrean Liberation Front - Executable and Linkable Format - Extremely Low Frequencies
EM - (i) Electromagnetism/Electromagnetic
EMF - (i) electromotive force
EMO - (i) Emergency-Measures Organisation
EMP - (i) ElectroMagnetic Pulse
EMT - (i) emergency medical technician

EN-ER

ENE - (i) East North-East
EO - (i) Electro-Optics
EOD - (i) Explosive Ordnance Disposal
ENY - (s) Enemy
EP - (i) Electronic Protection
EPCOT - (a) Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
EPL - (i) English Premier League
EPW - (i) Enemy Prisoner of War - Earth Penetrator Weapon/Warhead
Er - (s) Erbium
ERA - (i) Earned Run Average - Engineering Research Associates - Equal Rights Amendment
ERCIM - (i) European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics
ERP - (i) Engineer Regulating Point

ES-EZ

Es - (s) Einsteinium
ESA - (i) European Space Agency
ESE - (i) East South-East
ESM - (i) Electronic Warfare Support Measures
ESP - (i) Extra-Sensory Perception
ESU - (i) Emergency Services Unit
ETA - (i) Estimated Time Of Arrival - Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna
etc - (i) latin "et cetera" (and remaining)
ETLA - (i) Extended TLA
Eu - (s) Europium
EU - (i) European Union
EULA - (i) End-User License Agreement
EVA - (i) Extra-Vehicular Activity
EW - (i) Electronic Warfare
EZ - (i) Extraction Zone

F

F - (s) Farad - Fluorine

FA-FD

FAADEZ - (a) Forward Area Air Defence Zone
FAAQ - (a/i) Frequently Asked and Anticipated Questions (cf. FAQ)
FAD - (i) Flavin adenine dinucleotide
FAO - (i) Food and Agriculture Organization
FAQ - (a/i) Frequently Asked Questions (sometimes pronounced "fak")
FARC - (a) Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
FARP - (a) Forward Arming and Refuelling Area
FASEB - (a/i) Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
FBI - (i) Federal Bureau of Investigation
FC - (i) Fire Control - Funnel Cloud (METAR Code)
FCC - (i) Federal Communications Commission
FCM - (i) Fogarty's Cove Music - Federation of Canadian Municipalities
FCZ - (i) Forward Combat Zone
FDA - (i) Food and Drug Administration (US)
FDR - (i) Flight Data Recorder - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FE-FI

Fe - (s) Iron
FEBA - (a) Forward Edge of the Battle Area
FEMA - (a/i) Federal Emergency Management Agency
FF - (i) Final Fantasy
FFA - (i) Free Fire Area
FFT (i) Fast Fourier Transform - Final Fantasy Tactics
FG - (i) Fog (METAR Code)
FIDÉ - (a) Fédération internationale des échecs (World Chess Federation)
FIFA - (a) Fédération internationale de football association (International Association Football Federation)
FIFO - (a) First In First Out
FIPS - (a) Federal Information Processing Standard
FIS - (a/i) Fédération internationale de ski (International Ski Federation)
FiST - (a) Fire Support Team
FIU - (i) Florida International University

FL-FR

FL - (s) Florida (postal symbol)
FLAC - (a/i) Free Lossless Audio Codec.
FLAK - (i) Fliegen Abwehr Kannonen (German for anti aicraft guns)
FLB - (i) Forward Logistics Base
FLET - (a/i) Forward Line of Enemy Troops
FLIR - (i) Forward Looking InfraRed (sensor)
FLK - (i) Funny-Looking Kid (medical diagnosis in-joke)
FLOT - (a/i) Forward Line of Own Troops
Fm - (s) Fermium
FM - (s) Federated States of Micronesia (postal symbol) - (i) Field Manual - Frequency Modulation (electronics)
FMSF - (i) False Memory Syndrome Foundation
FO - (i) Forward Observer - Frame Optional (military symbology)
Fortran - (p) Formula Translator (programming language)
FPF - (i) Final Protective Fire
fps - (s) frames per second (motion pictures, television, computer graphics)
FPS - (i) First person shooter (computer/video games)
FQDN - Fully Qualified Domain Name
Fr - (s) Francium

FS-FZ

FSA - (i) Fire Support Area
FSB - (i) Forward Support Battalion
FSC - (a) Forest Stewardship Council (an ecological pressure group)
FSCL - (i) Fire Support Co-ordination Line
FSF - (i) Free Software Foundation
FSS - (i) Fire Support Station
FST - (i) Finlands Svenska Television (Finland's Swedish-language television)
FTC - (i) Federal Trade Commission
FTL - (i) Faster Than Light
FTP - (i) File Transfer Protocol
FTSE - (a/i) Financial Times Stock Exchange (pronounced "footsie")
FU - (i) Smoke (METAR Code)
FUBAR - (a) Fucked (or Fouled) Up Beyond All Recognition
FUD - (a) Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt (marketing strategy)
F/W - (i) Fixed Wing
FWI - (i) French West Indies
FWIW - (i) For What It's Worth
FYI - (i) For Your Information
FYROM - (a) Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
FZDZ - (i) Freezing Drizzle (METAR Code)
FZFG - (i) Freezing Fog (METAR Code)
FZRA - (i) Freezing Rain (METAR Code)

G

G3 - (i) many, including Heckler und Koch G3; see entry
G4 - (i) Generation Four PowerPC microprocessor
G5 - (i) Generation Five PowerPC microprocessor

GA-GI

Ga - (s) Gallium
GA - (s) Georgia (postal symbol)
GAAR - (a) General Anti-Avoidance Rule (Tax evasion)
GABA - (i) Gamma-AminoButyric Acid
GAD - (a) Generalized Anxiety Disorder
GBE - (i) Knight/Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
GCD - (i) see entry
GCF - (i) Greatest Common Factor
Gd - (s) Gadolinium
GDP - (i) Gross Domestic Product
GDR - (i) German Democratic Republic (cf. DDR)
Ge - (s) Germanium
GE - (i) General Electric - Genetic Engineering (cf. GM)
GEOS - (i) Graphical Environment Operating System
Gestapo - (p) GEheime STAatsPOlizei ("secret state police")
GeV - (s) Gigaelectron-volt
GEV - (i) Ground Effect Vehicle
GFE - (i) Good Faith Estimate
GFCI - (i) Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (aka GFI)
GFDL - (i) GNU Free Documentation License
GFI - (i) Ground Fault Interruptor (aka GFCI)
GFY - (i) "good for you" or "go fuck yourself", depending on the context (Internet chat)
GHB - (i) Gamma-HydroxyButyrate
GI - (i) Galvanised Iron - Gastro-Intestinal - General Issue - Government Issue
GIF - (a) Graphics Interchange Format
GIGO - (a) Garbage In Garbage Out (computing)
GIMP - (a) GNU Image Manipulation Program

GL-GU

GL - (i) Graphics Language - Grenade Launcher
GLAAD - (a) Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
GLUT - (a/i) OpenGL Utility Toolkit.
GM - (i) GameMaster (role-playing) - General Motors - Genetically Modified - Guru Meditation (computing)
GmbH - (i) Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (German, roughy "Inc" or "Ltd")
GMO - (i) Genetically Modified Organism
GMT - (i) Greenwich Mean Time
GNOME - (a) GNU Network Object Model Environment
GNU - (a) GNU's Not Unix
GOMER - (a) Get Out of My Emergency Room (derogatory reference to hypochondriac patients)
GOP - (i) Grand Old Party
GOSP - (a) Gas/Oil Separation Plant
GPG - (i) GNU Privacy Guard
GPIB - (i) General-Purpose Instrumentation/Interface Bus
GPL - (i) General Public License
GPS - (i) Global Positioning System
GR - (i) Hail (METAR Code)
GRAS - (i) Generally Regarded As Safe (FDA list)
grep - (a) [search] Globally for Regular Expression, Print [lines]
GSD - (i) Graphical Situation Display
GSM - (i) Ground Station Module
GSOH - (i) Good Sense Of Humour
GST - (i) Goods and Services Tax (Australia, Canada and other countries)
GT - (i) Gran Turismo - Grand Touring
GU - (s) Guam (postal symbol)
GUI - (a) Graphical User Interface (pronounced goo-ey)
Gulag - (p) Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh LAGerei
GUT - (i) Grand Unification Theory
GZ - (i) Ground Zero

H

H - (s) Henry - Hydrogen

HA-HG

HAI - (a) Human Awareness Institute
HALO - (a) High Altitude Low Opening (type of parachute jump)
HAWK - (a) Homing All the Way Killer
HazMat - (a) Hazardous Materials
HCF - (i) Highest Common Factor
HCI - (i) Human-Computer Interaction/Interface
HDD - (i) hard disk drive - High-Density Disk
He - (s) Helium
HEPA - (a/i) High-Efficiency Particulate Air (filter)
HETT - (a) Heavy Equipment Transporting Truck / Heavy Equipment Truck Tractor
Hf - (s) Hafnium
HF - (i) High Frequency
HFAC - (p) Human Factors ("aytchfak")
Hg - (i) Mercury (element)
HGF - (i) Human Growth Factor

HI-HO

HI - (s) Hawaii (postal symbol)
HIDACZ - (p) High-Density Airspace Control Zone ("high dak zed")
HIMEZ - (a) High Altitude Missile Engagement Zone
Hird - (a) Hurd of interfaces representing depth (cf. HURD)
HIV - (i) Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HKS - (i) HyperKinetic Syndrome
HL - (i) Holding Line
HLA - (i) Human Leukocyte Antigen - High Level Architecture
HLL - (i) High-Level Language
H/MAD - (p) High/Medium Altitude Air Defence ("aytchmad")
HMCE - (i) Her Majesty's Customs and Excise
HMCS - (i) Her Majesty's Canadian Ship
HMO - (i) Health Management Organization
HMP - (i) Her Majesty's Prison
HMS - (i) Her Majesty's Ship (see Royal Navy)
HMSO - (i) Her Majesty's Stationery Office
HMV - (i) His Master's Voice
Ho - (s) Holmium
HOPI - (a) Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (see Internet2, Abilene Network)

HP-HZ

HP - (i) Hewlett-Packard - horse power
HPGL or HP-GL - (i) Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language
HP-IB - (i) Hewlett-Packard Instrument/Interface Bus (first implementation of GP-IB, later standardised and now known as IEEE-488)
HP-IL - (i) Hewlett-Packard Interface Loop (serial bus used with some HP calculators and computers, notably the HP-41 and HP-71 series)
HPT - (i) Higher Payoff Target
HPV - (i) Human papilloma virus
HQ - (i) Headquarters
HRH - (i) Her Royal Highness
Hs - (s) Hassium
HSS - (i) High-Speed Steel
HST - (i) see entry
HSV - (i) herpes simplex virus - hue saturation value (colour model)
HTML - (i) Hypertext Markup Language
HUMINT - (p) Human Intelligence (military parlance)
HURD - (a) Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons (cf. Hird)
HVP - (i) hydrolized vegetable protein - HarborView Properties - High Vacuum Process
HW - (i) hardware
Hz - (s) Hertz
HZ - (i) Haze (METAR Code)

I

I - (s) Iodine

IA-IC

IA - (s) Iowa (postal symbol)
IAAF - (i) International Association of Athletics Federations
IAAL - (i) I Am A Lawyer
IACREOT - International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials, and Treasurers
IAEA - (i) International Atomic Energy Agency
IAF - {i} Industrial Areas Foundation
IAI - (i) International African Institute - Israel Aircraft Industries
IANA - (i) Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
IANAL - (i) I Am Not A Lawyer
IATA - (a/i) International Air Transport Association
IC - (i) Ice Crystals (METAR Code) - Integrated Circuit
ICAO - (i) International Civil Aviation Organization
ICBM - (i) Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
ICBN - (i) International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
ICC - (i) International Criminal Court
ICD - (i) Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator - International Classification of Diseases
ICHTHYS - (a) Iesous Christos, Theou Yios, Soter (Greek for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior")
ICP - (i) Insane Clown Posse - Inductively Coupled Plasma
ICZN - (i) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

ID-IL

ID - (s) Idaho (postal symbol) - (i) Identity - (s) Indonesia - (i) Infantry Division
IDF - (i) Israel Defence Forces
i.e. - (i) id est (Latin, roughly "that is")
IE - Internet Explorer - Indo-European
IEC - (i) International Electrotechnical Commission
IED - (i) Improvised Explosive Device
IEEE - (i) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (pronounced "I triple-E")
IETF - (i) Internet Engineering Task Force
IFF - (i) Identification, Friend or Foe
IFO - (i) Identified flying object
IFV - (i) Infantry Fighting Vehicle
IHR - (i) Institute for Historical Review
IIRC - (i) If I Recall/Remember Correctly
IIT - (i) Illinois Institute of Technology - Indian Institutes of Technology - Indiana Institute of Technology
IL - (s) Illinois (postal symbol)
ILC - (i) International Law Commission
ILO - (i) International Labour Organisation

IM-IQ

IMF - (i) International Monetary Fund
IMHO - (i) In My Humble Opinion
IMO - (i) International Maritime Organization - In My Opinion
IMRI - (i) Industrial Membrane Research Institute - Information Management Research Institute - Institut pour le management de la recherche et de l'innovation - International Market Research Information - Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
In - (s) Indium
IN - (s) Indiana (postal symbol)
INC - (i) Iraqi National Congress
INLA - (i) Irish National Liberation Army
INRI - (a/i) Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudæorum (Latin, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews")
INST - (i) Information Standards and Technology
IP - (i) Initial Point - Intellectual Property - Internet Protocol
IPN - (i) Instytut Pamieci Narodowej (Institute for National Memory)
IPW - (i) Interrogation of Prisoners of War
IQ - (i) Intelligence Quotient

IR-IZ

Ir - (s) Iridium
IR - (i) Infrared
IRA - (i) Individual Retirement Account (legally, Individual Retirement Arrangement) - Irish Republican Army
IRBM - (i) Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile
IRC - (i) International Red Cross - International Reply Coupon - Internet Relay Chat
IRO - (i) International Refugee Organisation
IRS - (i) Internal Revenue Service