List of initialisms: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 17:03, 29 September 2003

This is a list of initialisms, acronyms that are pronounced as a series of the names of the constituent letters (but, there is disagreement on some; eg RBOC as "are-bock").

AA - Alcoholics Anonymous / Automobile Association
AAA - American Automobile Association
AAD - analogue analogue digital - Australian Antarctic Division
ABC - 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
ABM - anti-ballistic missile - Asynchronous Balanced Mode - automated banking machine
ABS - acrylonitrile butadiene styrene - anti-lock braking system
AC - adriamycin-cyclophosphamide (chemotherapy) - alternating current - Anonymous Coward - ante christum - air conditioning - Albert Champion
ACL - Access Control List
ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
ACM - see entry
AD - Latin "Anno Domini" (In the year of our Lord)
ADA - American Dental Association
ADD - analogue digital digital - attention-deficit disorder
ADHD - Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHS - attention-deficit hyperactivity syndrome
ADL - Anti-Defamation League
ADM - Archer Daniels Midland
ADS - attention-deficit syndrome
ADT - Atlantic Daylight Time (UTC-3 hours)
AFACT - As far as I can tell
AFAIK - As far as I know
AFAIR - As far as I remember
AFJ - April Fool's Joke
AFK - Away from keyboard
AFL - American Federation of Labor - American Football League - Arena Football League - Australian Football League
AGM - Annual General Meeting
AI - Amnesty International; Artificial Intelligence
AIC - African Independent Church
AIDS - Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
AIM - AOL Instant Messenger, among others
aka - also known as
AKDT - Alaska Standard Daylight Saving Time (UTC-8 hours)
AKST - Alaska Standard Time (UTC-9 hours)
ALS - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
AM - see entry
AMA - American Medical Association
AMD - Advanced Micro Devices
AMS - American Mathematical Society
ANSI - American National Standards Institute
AOL - America Online
AP - Associated Press
apm - Advanced Power Management
ASA - Acetesalicylic acid - American Standards Association - Army Security Agency - Atlantic Southeast Airlines
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIO - Australian Security Intelligence Service
ASL - American Sign Language
ASP - Application service provider
ASP - Active Server Pages
AST - Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4 hours)
AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph Company
ATM - automated teller machine - asynchronous transfer mode
ATV - All-Terrain Vehicle
AUC - 1. Latin "AB URBE CONDITA" (from the founding of the city (of Rome) or "ANNO URBIS CONDITAE" (in the year from the founding of the city (of Rome) 2. "area under the curve" in the concentration time curve (medicine)
AVO - Apprehended Violence Order
AZT - azidothymidine
B&W - black and white - Babcock & Wilcox
B2B - Business to Business
B2C - Business to Customer
B2E - Business to Employee
BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit
BATF - Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
BB - Brigitte Bardot (actress) / Boys' Brigade (Christian youth organisation)
BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation
BBQ - Barbeque
BC - Before Christ / Blind Copy (in emailers)
BCC - Blind Carbon Copy
BCE - Before Common Era - British Columbia Electric
BDA - British Dental Association
BDU - battle-dress uniform
BFE - Beyond/Butt F*****' Egypt (colloquial for "quite far away")
BMI - Broadcast Music Incorporated / Body mass index
BMW - Bayerische Motoren Werke/Bavarian motor-works
BMX - Bicycle Motor Cross
BNS - Bank of Nova Scotia
BO2K - Back Orifice 2000
BOFH - Bastard operator from hell
BP - British Petroleum (today, BP doesn't officially stand for everything)
bpm - Beats per minute
BRB - Internet chat abbreviation, "be right back"
BSA - Boy Scouts of America
BSD - Berkeley Software Distribution (distinct from BSoD)
BSE - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, better known as Mad Cow disease
BSL - British Sign Language
BSoD - Blue screen of death (distinct from BSD)
BST - bovine somatatotrophin hormone - Blended Sales Tax - British Summer Time
BT - British Telecommunications plc
BTO - Built to Order
BTU - British thermal unit
BTW - By the way
BWR - boiling-water reactor
BYOB - Bring your own beverages/bottle
CB - citizens' band radio
CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CC - carbon copy
CCCP - Cyrillic letters corresponding SSSR, see USSR
CCD - charge-coupled device
CD - Compact disc
CDC - Centre for Disease Control and prevention - Control Data Corporation
CE - Common (or Christian) Era (cf. AD)
CEPT - Conference Européenne des administration des Postes et des Télécommunications (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations)
cf. - Latin confer (compare, or see also)
CFG - Context-free grammar, Control flow graph
CIA - Central Intelligence Agency - Culinary Institute of America
CID - Criminal Investigations Department
CIO - Chief information officer - Congress of Industrial Organisations
CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union
CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
CMHC - Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
CMM - Capability Maturity Model
CMR - Coaxial Main Rotors (helicopter type)
CMYK - cyan magenta yellow key (colour model)
CND - Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
CNN - Cable News Network
CO - Central Office (Phone Company office or POP)
COD - cash on delivery
CPA - Certified Practicing Accountant
CQD - come quick, distress (?)
CRC - Christian Reformed Church - Cyclic redundancy check - Chemical Rubber Company
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
CRT - cathode ray tube - Chinese remainder theorem
CRTC - Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
CSA - Confederate States of America - Canadian Standards Association - Canadian Space Agency - Child Support Agency - Czech Airlines - Community Supported Agriculture
CSICOP - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
CSIS - Canadian Security Intelligence Service - Center For Strategic & International Studies
CUPE - Canadian Union of Public Employees
CUPW - Canadian Union of Postal Workers
CV - see entry
CVR - Cockpit voice recorder
CWC - Chemical Weapons Convention
DC - da capo - Italian Democrazia Cristiana - direct current - District of Columbia - Douglas Aircraft Company - Dublin Core - duty cycle
DDD - digital digital digital - Data Display Debugger
DDS - Doctor of Dental Surgery
DDT - dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (insecticide)
DEA - Drug Enforcement Agency
DH, DD, DS - dear husband, dear daughter, dear son (increasingly prevalent on social mailing lists, blogs, and bulletin boards)
DHSS - Department of Health and Social Security
DIY - do it yourself
DMZ - demilitarized zone
DNA - DeoxyriboNucleic Acid - Douglas Adams
DND - Do Not Disturb - Department of National Defense
DOA - Dead On Arrival
DPDT - double-pole double-throw
DPST - double-pole single-throw
DTRA - Defence Threat Reduction Agency
DUI - Driving Under the Influence - Data Use Identifier - Data Use Institute - Davis Unified Ignition - Diving Unlimited International - Documento Único de Identidad - Documento Unico de Importación - Duke University Improv
DVD - Digital Versatile Disk (was Digital Video Disk)
DWI - Driving While Intoxicated/Impaired - Dance With Intensity - Danish West Indies - Diffusion-weighted imaging - Direct water injection - Disaster Welfare Inquiry - Drinking Water Inspectorate
EBCDIC - Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
EBE - extraterrestrial biological entity
EEC - European Economical Community
eg - example gratis (Latin, roughly "for example")
ELF - Earth Liberation Front - Endangered Language Fund - Eritrean Liberation Front - Executable and Linkable Format - Extremely Low Frequencies
EMF - electromotive force
EMO - emergency-measures organisation
EMP - electromagnetic pulse
ENE - east northeast
ESA - European Space Agency
ESE - east southeast
ESP - Extra-Sensory Perception
ETA - estimated time of arrival; Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna
etc - latin "et cetera" (and remaining)
ETLA - Extended TLA
EU - European Union
EULA - End-User License Agreement
EVA - extra-vehicular activity
FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation
FCM - Fogarty's Cove Music - Federation of Canadian Municipalities
FDR - Franklin Delano Roosevelt / Flight data recorder
FEMA - Federal Emergency Management Agency
FLIR - forward looking infrared
FLK - Funny-Looking Kid (medical diagnosis in-joke)
FM - frequency modulation
FMSF False Memory Syndrome Foundation
FPS - First person shooter
FST - Finlands Svenska Television (Finland's Swedish-language television)
FTL - Faster Than Light
FUBAR - F****d Up Beyond All Repair/Recognition
FUD - Fear Uncertainty Doubt
FWIW - For What It's Worth
FYI - For Your Information
GCD - greatest common divisor
GCD - see entry
GCF - greatest common factor
GE - General Electric - Genetic Engineering (see GM)
GEV - Ground Effect Vehicle
GFCI - ground fault circuit interrupter (aka GFI)
GFDL - GNU Free Documentation License
GFI - ground fault interrupter (aka GFCI)
GFY - Internet chat acronym, "good for you", or "go fuck yourself", depending on the context
GL - Grenade Launcher
GM - GameMaster (role-playing terminology) / Genetically Modified / General Motors
GmbH - Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (German, roughy "Inc" or "Ltd")
GMO - Genetically modified organism
GPS - Global Positioning System
GT - Gran Turismo
GUT - grand unification theory
HCF - highest common factor
HDD - hard disk drive - high-density disk
HEPA - High-efficiency particulate air (filter)
HKS - hyperkinetic syndrome
HMCE - Her/His Majesty's Customs and Excise
HMCS - Her/His Majesty's Canadian Ship
HMO - Health Management Organization
HMP - Her (or His) Majesty's Prison
HMS - Her (or His) Majesty's Ship (see Royal Navy)
HMSO - Her (or His) Majesty's Stationery Office
HPGL - Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language
HPIB - Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus
HQ - Headquarters
HRH - His/Her Royal Highness
HSS - High-Speed Steel
HST - see entry
HSV - herpes simplex virus - hue saturation value (colour model)
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language
IAAL - I am a lawyer
IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency
IAI - International African Institute
IANA - Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
IANAL - I am not a lawyer
IATA - International Air Transport Association
ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization
ICBM - intercontinental ballistic missile
ICC - International Criminal Court
IDF - Israeli Defence Force
ie - ?? (Latin, roughly "that is")
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IFO - Identified flying object
IIRC - If I recall correctly
ILC - International Law Commission
ILO - International Labour Organisation
IMF - International Monetary Fund
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IMO - International Maritime Organization - In My Opinion
IMRI - Industrial Membrane Research Institute - Information Management Research Institute - International Market Research Information - Institut pour le Management de la Recherche et de l'Innovation - intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging
INLA - Irish National Liberation Army
INRI - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudæorum (Latin, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews)
IPN - Instytut Pamieci Narodowej (Institute for National Memory)
IR - infrared
IRA - Individual Retirement Account - Irish Republican Army
IRC - Internet relay chat
IRO - International Refugee Organisation
IRS - Internal Revenue Service
ISA - Individual Savings Account - industry standard architecture - Instruction Set Architecture - International Seabed Authority
ISO - International Organization for Standardization
ITN - Independent Television News (British TV news company)
ITU - International Telecommunication Union (yet to be established)
JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association
JCS - Joint Chiefs of Staff
JDL - Jewish Defense League
JFK - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
JRA - Japanese Red Army
JW - Jehovah's witness
KARNAC - Knowledge Aided Retrieval in Activity Context
KGB - Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security - Soviet Intelligence Service
KIA - Killed In Action
KKK - Ku Klux Klan
LATA - Local Access Transport Area
LBGT - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual
LBJ - Lyndon Johnson - "Lady Bird" Johnson - Lightbulb joke
LCM - least common multiple
LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LDS - latter-day saints
LEC - Local Exchange Carrier
LED - Light Emiting Diode
LGB - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
LGM - little green men
LIFO - Last In First Out
LMAO - Laughing my a** off.
LMS - London Mathematical Society
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
LSD - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
LSE - London School of Economics - London Stock Exchange
LSI - Large-Scale Integration
MAA - Mathematical Association of America
MAD - magnetic anomaly detector - mutual assured destruction
MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving - Myoadenylate deaminase deficiency
MASH - Mobile army surgical hospital
MBTA - Massachussetts Bay Transit Authority
MCD - minimal cerebral dysfunction
MDF - main distribution frame - medium-density fibreboard
MG - Machine gun
MHz - Megahertz
MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Milli Istihbarad Teskilati (Intelligence service of Turkey)
MMU - Manned Maneuvering Unit
MND - Motor Neurone Disease
MO - modus operandi
MOPE - Most Oppressed People Ever (politics)
MRI - magnetic resonance imaging
MS - Master of Science - Microsoft (sometimes M$) - Multiple sclerosis
MSG - Monosodium glutamate
MSIE - Microsoft Internet Explorer
MTR - Main and Tail Rotor (helicopter type)
MTV - Music TeleVision; MainosTeleVisio (Finnish commercial TV company)
n/a - not available / Not applicable
NAIRU - Non Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment
NASA - Nat'l Aeronautics and Space Administration - Never A Straight Answer
NB - nota bene - New Brunswick
NBC - Nuclear/Biological/Chemical - National Broadcasting Corporation
NC - network computer - non-consensual - normally closed - North Carolina
NE - northeast
NET - National Educational Television
NFER - National Foundation for Educational Research
Nfld - Newfoundland
NGO - Non-Governmental Organization
NIH - National Institutes of Health - Not Invented Here
NIMH - nickel metal hydride - National Institute of Medical Herbalists - National Institute of Mental Health
NLP - Natural Language Processing or Neuro Linguistic Programming
NNE - north northeast
NNW - north northwest
NO - normally open
NPC - Non-Player Character (roleplaying terminology)
NPOV - Neutral point of view
NPR - National public radio
NSA - National Security Agency
NW - northwest
NYSE - New York Stock Exchange
NZ - New Zealand
OAC - on approved credit
OAU - Organization for African Unity
OBE - Order of the British Empire
OED - Oxford English Dictionary
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
OO - object oriented - over & out
OOP - object-oriented programming
OSB - oriented-strand board
OSI - Office of Strategic Influence / Ontario Swine Improvement / Open Source Initiative / Open systems interconnect
OSS - Organization for Strategic Services (forerunner of CIA)
OTOH - On The Other Hand
PABX - Private Automated Branch Exchange (company phone system)
PARC - Palo Alto Research Center
PBS - Public Broadcasting Service
PBX - Private Branch Exchange (company phone system)
PC - Personal Computer; Player Character (roleplaying terminology); Politically Correct(ness)
PCB - see entry
PCC - Presidents Conference Committee
PCMCIA - People Can't Memorise Computer-Industry Acronyms
PCP - phencyclidine - pneumocystis carinii pneumonia - Probabilistically Checkable Proof
PDA - Public display of affection - personal digital assistant - push-down automaton
PDQ - pretty damn quick (?)
PETA - pentaerythritol triacrylate - People Eating Tasty Animals - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
PFO - Pissed, Fell Over (medical diagnosis in-joke)
PINF - People In Need Foundation (Czech charitable organization)
PLC - (British) public limited company
PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization
PM - post meridian - Prime Minister - phase modulation - Perry Mason
PNAC - Project for the New American Century
PNG - Portable Network Graphic
PNP - Partido Nuevo Progresista - plug 'n' play - positive negative positive
POP - Point of Presence - Post Office Protocol
POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service, also PANS - Pretty Advanced (or Awsome) Network Services
PPP - see entry
PSA - Prostate specific antigen - Production Services Association - Paralysis Society of America - Pharmaceutical Society of Australia - Public Service Association - Public Service Announcement - pressure-sensitive adhesive
PTA - parent-teacher association
PVC - permanent virtual circuit - polyvinyl chloride - premature ventricular contraction
PWP - Plot, What Plot? (in online fiction, especially fanfic or erotic fiction, to denote plotless, um, "feel-good" stories)
PWR - pressurised water reactor
QANTAS - Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service
QC - Queen's Counsel
QCA - Qualifications and Curriculum Authority - Quality Council of Alberta
QCD - quantum chromodynamics
QED - Latin "quid es demonstrata" (that proves it) - quantum electrodynamics
QSL - Québec sign language
qv - Latin "quod vide" (which see)
R&B - Rythm and Blues
RA - right ascension
RAF - Royal Air Force; Red Army Faction
Rap - Rythm and poetry
RBOC - Regional Bell operating company ("Baby Bell")
RC - see entry
RCA - Radio Corporation of America
RCAF - Royal Canadian Air Force
RCCO - Royal Canadian College of Organists
RCMP - Royal Canadian Mounted Police
REACT - Remote Electronically Activated Control Technology
RGB - red green blue (colour model)
RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America
RIP - Rest in Peace (requiescant in pace)
RMS - Royal Mail Ship (eg RMS Titanic) - Root-mean-square - Richard Stallman - Rate-monotonic scheduling
RNA - Ribonuclear Acid
ROFL(MAO) - Rolling On the Floor Laughing (My A** Off)
ROV - remotely operated vehicle
RP - role-playing
RPG - role-playing game; Rocket Projectile Gun/Rocket Powered Grenade
rpm - Revolutions Per Minute; Red Hat Package Manager
RPN - Reverse Polish Notation
rps - Revolutions Per Second
RUC - Royal Ulster Constabulary
SA - Sturmabteilung (Storm Detachment, forerunner of SS)
SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder
SALT - Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
SAR - Search and Rescue
SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
SAS - Special Air Service; Scandinavian Airline Systems
SATB - soprano alto tenor bass
SBS - Special Boat Service
SCRAM - safety control rod axe man
SCSI - small computer system interface
SDI - see entry
SDP - Social Democratic Party (European politics)
SE - southeast
SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
SF - San Francisco - science fiction
SGML - Standard Generalised Markup Language
SIAM - Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
SIG - Special Interest Group
SIS - Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6)
SLA - Symbionese Liberation Army
SMDR - Station Message Detail Recording
SMG - Submachine Gun
SNAFU - Situation Normal (All Fouled Up)
SOE - Special Operations Executive (WW2 British organization)
SOL - S**t Out of Luck
SOV - Single occupant vehicle
SPDT - single-pole double-throw
SPQR - Senatus Populus Que Romanus
SPST - single-pole single-throw
SRB - solid rocket booster
SS - Schutzstaffel (elite guard) - Secret Service - Spanish ship - stainless steel - Stockholm Skins - Super Sport
SSDD - same shit, different day
SSE - south southeast
SSRI - Social Systems Research Institute - Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
SSW - south southwest
STOL - Short Take Off and Landing
STOVL - Short Take Off and Vertical Landing
STP - standard temperature and pressure
SUB - student-union building
SVO - subject, verb, object
SW - southwest
SWAPO - South West African People's Organization
TATT - Tired All The Time (medical diagnosis in-joke)
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol - trichlorophenol
TGIF - Thank God it's Friday
TGV - Train à Grande Vitesse (high-speed train) - Tanjong Golden Village - Test Generation with Verification
TLA - Three-Letter Acronym
TLC - tender loving care - The Learning Channel
TLD - top-level domain
TM - trademark - Turing machine
TMR - Twin Main Rotors (helicopter type)
TSR - see entry
TTYL - Internet chat acryonym, "talk to you later"
TUNS - Technical University of Nova Scotia
TWAT - The War Against Terror
UBC - united baptist church - University of British Columbia
UCK - acronym for two Albanian guerilla movements
UCLA - University of California Los Angeles
UFO - Unidentified Flying Object
UHF - ultra high frequency
UHMW - ultra-high molecular weight
UL - Underwriters Laboratories
UN - United Nations
UNHCR - United Nations High Commission for Refugees
UNSM - Union of Nova Scotian Municipalities
UPI - United Press International
UPS - United Parcel Service - uninterruptible power supply
UPU - Universal Postal Union
USA - United States of America
USAF - United States Air Force
USAPATRIOT - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
USC - United States Code
USGS - United States Geological Survey
USS - United States ship
USSR - United Soviet Socialist Republics (ie. Soviet Union)
UV - ultraviolet
VAT - value-added tax
VHF - very high frequency
VLSI - Very-Large-Scale Integration
VSO - Voluntary Services Overseas
VTOL - Vertical Takeoff & Landing
VV - Via Voice - Village Voice
W3C - World Wide Web Convention
WB - Warner Brothers
WC - Winston Churchill - water closet
WCL - World Confederation of Labour
WFP - World Food Program
WHO - World Health Organization
WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization
WMO - World Meteorological Organization
WNW - west northwest
WRT - with respect to
WSW - west southwest
WTC - World Trade Center
WTO - World Trade Organization
WW1 (or WWI) - World War One
WW2 (or WWII) - World War Two
WWF - World Wildlife Fund; World Wrestling Federation
WWW - World Wide Web
YMCA - Young Men's Christian Association
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary
YWCA - Young Women's Christian Association

External Links

Acronymfinder

Revision as of 17:03, 29 September 2003

See also:

External Links