List of initialisms
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