Abbreviation:
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or a phrase (group of words).
The result of abbreviation is a reduced form or abridgement of writing. They are commonly used because they save time and space.
As said by John Horne Tooke, “Abbreviations are the wheels of language, the wings of Mercury.
Examples:
ATM = Automated Teller Machine
BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation
Acronym:
It is a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word.
Examples:
NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA)
AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Most Common Abbreviations & Acronyms with Letter C
C
| c. / ca | circa (Latin) (=about) |
| c | Caught by (Cricket) / century(-ries) / cent(s) / chapter |
| c/- | care of (Australia & New Zealand) |
| C | Cape / Catholic / Command Paper (second series, 1870-99) / cancer / Conservative / capacitance (Electricity) / carbon (Chemistry), cargo (in designations of US aircraft types) / Celsius / Centigrade / Channel (TV) / cocaine / charge conjugation (Particle Physics) / common time (Music) / coulomb(s) (Physics) / Cytosine (Biochemistry) |
| © | copyright |
| C2C | Consumer-to-Consumer (internet transactions between consumers) |
| Ca | Calcium (Chemistry) |
| CA | California Chartered Accountant |
| CAA | Civil Aviation Authority |
| cab | cabriolet |
| CAB | Citizen’s Advice Bureau Civil Aeronautics Board (US) |
| cad | caddie / cadet |
| CAD | Computer-aided (or –assisted) design |
| CAF | Cost and freight (US) |
| CAI | Computer-aided (or –assisted) instruction |
| cal | (small) calorie |
| Cal | (large) calorie |
| Cal. | California |
| CAL | Computer-aided (or –assisted) learning |
| c & b | Caught and bowled by (Cricket) |
| CB | Citizen’s Band (Radio) Companion (of the Order) of the Bath Confined, confinement, to barracks |
| Cb | Columbium (Chemistry) |
| CBC | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| CBD | Cash before delivery (US) |
| CBE | Commander of (the Order of) the British Empire |
| CBI | Confederation of British Industry Central Bureau of Investigation |
| CBS | Columbia Broadcasting System |
| CBSE | Central Board of Secondary Education |
| CBT | Cognitive behavior therapy Children’s Book Trust |
| CBW | Chemical and biological warfare weapons |
| cc | Carbon copy Cubic centimeter(s) |
| CC | Cricket Club Country Council(lor) City Council Companion of (the Order of) Canada |
| CCD | Charge-coupled device (Electronics) |
| CCJ | Country court judgment |
| CCTV | Closed-circuit television |
| CCU | Critical care unit Cardiac care unit Coronary care unit |
| cd | Candela |
| CD | Compact disc, compact disc player Civil Defence (French) corps diplomatique (diplomatic corps) |
| Cd | Cadmium (Chemistry) |
| Cd. | Command Paper (3rd series, 1900-18) |
| CDC | Centers for Disease Control (and Prevention) (US) |
| CD-I | Compact disc interactive |
| CDMA | Code division multiple access (Telecommunications) |
| cDNA | Complementary DNA |
| CD-R | Compact disc recordable |
| Cdr | Commander (Military) |
| Cdre | Commodore |
| CD-ROM | Compact disc (with) read-only memory |
| CD-RW | Compact disc rewritable |
| CDT | Central Daylight Time (N. America) |
| CDTV | Compact disc television |
| CDV | CD video |
| CE | Civil Engineer / Civil Engineering Church of England Common (or Christian) Era |
| Ce | Cerium (Chemistry) |
| CEGB | Central Electricity Generating Board |
| C.Eng. | Chartered engineer |
| CEO | Chief Executive Officer |
| CERN | French Conseil Europeen pour Recherche Nuceaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research (later European Laboratory for Particle Physics) |
| Cert.Ed. | Certificate in Education |
| CET | Central European Time |
| c.f. | Carried forward |
| cf. | confer = compare (Latin) |
| CF | Chaplin to the Forces Cystic fibrosis |
| Cf | Californium (chemical agent) (Chemistry) |
| CFA | Communate Financiere Africaine (French) = African Financial Community (CFA franc) |
| CFC | Chlorofluorocarbon |
| CFE | College of Further Education |
| CFL | Compact Fluorescent Lamp |
| CFO | Chief financial officer |
| cfs | Cubic feet per second |
| CFS | Chronic fatigue syndrome |
| cg | Centigram(s) |
| CGA | Color graphics adapter (Computing) |
| CGI | Common Gateway Interface (Computing) Compacted graphite iron Computer-generated imagery (Computing) |
| CGM | Conspicuous Gallantry Medal |
| cgs | Centimeter-gram-second (system) |
| CGS | Centimeter-gram-second (system) Chief of the General Staff |
| CGT | Capital gains tax |
| ch. | Chapter / Chestnut |
| Ch. | Church |
| CH | Companion of Honor |
| CI | Channel Islands Order of the Crown of India |
| C I A | Central Intelligence Agency (USA) |
| C I D | Criminal Investigation Department Committee of Imperial Defence |
| CIE | Companion of (the Order of) the Indian Empire |
| c.i.f. | Cost, insurance, freight (as being included in a price) |
| cig | A cigarette / a cigar / a cigarillo (colloquial) |
| CIGS | Chief of the Imperial General Staff |
| C.-in-C. | Commander-in-Chief |
| cine | Cinematographic (ex: cine camera, cine film, cine projector, etc.) |
| CIO | Congress of Industrial Organization |
| CIS | Commonwealth of Independent States |
| cit | Citizen |
| CITES | (acronym) Convention In Trades of Endangered Species |
| civvy | Civilian (colloquial) |
| CJ | Chief Justice |
| CJD | Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease |
| cl | Centiliter(s) |
| Cl | Chlorine (Chemistry) |
| cl. | Class / clause |
| Cm | Curium (chemical agent) (Chemistry) |
| Cm. | Command Paper (sixth series 1986-) |
| CM | Member of the Order of Canada Chief Minister |
| cm | Centimeter(s) |
| Cmd. | Command Paper (fourth series, 1918-56) |
| Cmdr | Commander |
| Cmdre | Commodore |
| CMEA | Council for Mutual Economic Assistance |
| CMG | Companion of (the Order of) St Michael and St George |
| Cmnd. | Command Paper (fifth series 1956-86) |
| CMOS | Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (Electronics) |
| CMV | Cytomegalovirus (Medicine) |
| CNAA | Council for National Academic Awards |
| CND | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament |
| CNG | Compressed natural gas |
| CNN | Cable News Network |
| cnr | Corner |
| CNS | Central nervous system Chief of the Naval Staff |
| c/o | Care of |
| CO | Commanding Officer Colorado Conscientious objector |
| Co | Cobalt (Chemistry) |
| Co. | Company / county |
| CP | Communist Party Country Party (Australia) Cape Province Charge conjugation and parity (Particle Physics) |
| c.p. | Candlepower |
| cp. | compara = compare (Latin) |
| CPA | Certified public accountant (US) |
| C.Phys. | Chartered physicist |
| CPI | Consumer price index |
| Cpl | Corporal |
| CPO | Chief Petty Officer |
| CPR | Canadian Pacific Railway |
| CPRE | Council for the Protection of Rural England |
| cps | Characters per second / cycles per second (Computing) |
| CPSA | Civil and Public Services Association |
| CPT | Charge conjugation parity and time reversal (Particle Physics) |
| CPU | Central Processing Unit |
| CR | Community of the Resurrection (Christian Church) |
| Cr | Chromium (Chemistry) |
| Cr. | Creditor / Councilor |
| CS | Chartered surveyor Civil Service Court of Session |
| Cs | Caesium (Chemistry) |
| c/s | Cycles per second |
| CSA | Child Support Agency |
| CSC | Civil Service Commission |
| CSE | Certificate of Secondary Education |
| C-section | A Caesarean section (US) |
| CSF | Cerebrospinal fluid (Medicine) |
| CSI | Companion of (the Order of) the Star of India |
| CSIRO | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization |
| CSM | Company Sergeant Major |
| CST | Central Standard Time |
| CSU | Civil Service Union |
| CT | Computed (or computerized) tomography (cf. CAT) (Medicine) / Connecticut |
| Ct | Count / Court |
| ct | Carat / Cent |
| CTBT | Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty |
| CTC | City Technology College / Cyclist’s Touring Club |
| CTS | Carpal tunnel syndrome (Medicine) |
| CTT | Capital Transfer Tax |
| cu. | cubic (in units of measurement) |
| CU | Christian Union / See you (informal) |
| Cu | Cuprum (Latin) = copper (Chemistry) |
| CUP / cup | Cambridge University Press |
Abbreviations & Acronyms in Alphabetical Order – Click the Letter
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