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
AB
AC
AD-AE
AF-AG
AI-AM
AN-AR
AS
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
BA-BC
BD-BN
BO-BR
BS-BY
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
CE-CH
CI-CM
CN-CQ
CR-CW
D
DA-DE
DG-DL
DM-DQ
DR-DS
DT-DZ
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
EN-ER
ES-EZ
F
FA-FD
FE-FI
FL-FR
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
GA-GI
GL-GU
H
HA-HG
HI-HO
HP-HZ
I
IA-IC
ID-IL
IM-IQ
IR-IZ