The Complete List
Abbreviations & Acronyms
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.
Abbreviations & Acronyms in Alphabetical Order – Click the Letter
Some common abbreviations & acronyms:
A – Academician / adenine (biology in DNA sequences) / angstrom (Physics) / for adults (a film certificate)
a – accepted (on bills of exchange)
AA – Automobile Association / Anti-aircraft / Alcoholics Anonymous
AAA – Amateur Athletic Association / American (Australian) Automobile Association / Anti-aircraft artillery (US)
AAAS – American Association for the Advancement of Science
AARP – American Association of Retired Persons
AAU – Amateur Athletic Union
AB – Able (seaman) / Artium Baccalaureus Bachelor of Arts (Latin) equivalent to BA
ABA – Amateur Boxing Association / American Bar Association (US) / American Booksellers’ Association (US)
ABC – American Broadcasting Corporation / Australian Broadcasting Corporation (formerly Commission).
ABH – Actual bodily harm
ABH – Anti-ballistic missile
ABS – Anti-lock braking system (for motor vehicles) / Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, a hard composite plastic
ABTA – Association of British Travel Agents
ABV – Alcohol by volume
A/C – Account current / Air-conditioned (Air-conditioning)
AC – Air-conditioned/Air-conditioning / Aircraftman / Alternating current (Electricity) / Athletic club / ante Christum ‘before Christ’ (Latin)
ACAS – Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service
A/D – Analog to digital (Electronics)
AD — Anno Domini (in the year of Our Lord – Latin)
ADA – Adenosine deaminase
ADC – Aide-de-camp / Analogue–digital converter
ADD – Attention deficit disorder (Medical)
ADF – Automatic direction-finder, a device used by pilots to aid navigation
ADH – Antidiuretic hormone (Medical)
ADHD – Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Adj. / adj. – adjective (Grammar) / adjutant (Military)
ADP – Adenosine diphosphate (Biochemistry) / Automatic data processing
ADR – Alternative dispute resolution (Law) / American depository receipt (US Stock Exchange)
ADSL – Asymmetric (or asynchronous) digital subscriber line (or loop) (Computing & Telecommunications)
A & E – Accident and Emergency
AEEU – Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union
AEF – American Expeditionary Forces (esp. in Europe) during the First World War
AER – Annual Equivalence Rate (of a compound interest rate paid annually)
AEU – Amalgamated Engineering Union
AFB – Air Force Base
AFC – Air Force Cross / Association Football Club
AFDC – Aid to Families with Dependent Children (US), (a welfare benefit paid by the federal government)
AF – Audio Frequency
AFB – Air Force Base
AFL – Australian Football League
AIDS (acronym) — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
AIIMS (both abbreviation & acronym) — All India Institute of Medical Sciences
AIR (both abbreviation & acronym) — All India Radio
a.m. — ante meridiem (before noon)
AMU — Aligarh Muslim University
AP — Associated Press
ATM — Automated Teller Machine
B&W — Black and White
BA — Bachelor of Arts
BBC — British Broadcasting Corporation
BC — Before Christ
BEd. — Bachelor of Education
BP — Blood Pressure
BSc. — Bachelor of Science
BSF — Border Security Force
BSNL — Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
CA — Chartered Accountant
CBI — Central Bureau of Investigation
CBSE — Central Board of Secondary Education
CBT — Children’s Book Trust
CFL — Compact Fluorescent Lamp
I A — Central Intelligence Agency (USA)
C I D — Criminal Investigation Department
CNN — Cable News Network
CTBT — Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
DIG — Deputy Inspector General
DNA — Deoxyribonucleic Acid
DOS (both abbreviation & acronym) — Disk Operating System
DTP — Desk-top Publishing
DVD — Digital Versatile Disc
E & O E — Errors and Omissions Exempted
ECG — Electrocardiogram
e.g. — exempli gratia (for example)
EMI — Equated Monthly Installments etc.
etc. – et cetera = and other things, and so on (Note: now rarely used)
FBI — Federal Bureau of Investigation
FIFA (acronym) — Federation International de Football Association (Federation of the International Football Association)
FIR — First Information Report
FM — Frequency Modulation
GMT — Greenwich Mean Time
Govt. — Government
GPO — General Post Office
HIV — Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HQ — Headquarters
IA — Indian Airlines
IAF — Indian Air Force
IAS — Indian Administrative Service
IBM — International Business Machines
ICU — Intensive Care Unit
i.e. — id est (that is)
IGNOU (both abbreviation & acronym) — Indira Gandhi National Open University
IIT — Indian Institute of Technology
INA — Indian National Army
INTERPOL (acronym) — International Criminal Police Commission
IPS — Indian Police Service
IQ — Intelligence Quotient
ISBN — International Standard Book Number
ISD — International Subscriber Dialling
ISI — Indian Standards Institution / Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan)
IST — Indian Standard Time
ISRO (acronym) —Indian Space Research Organization
ITI — Industrial Training Institute
ITO — Income Tax Officer / International Trade Organization
lbw — leg before wicket
LCD — Liquid-crystal Display
LIC — Life Insurance Corporation
LLB — Bachelor of Laws
LPG — Liquefied Petroleum Gas
Ltd. — Limited
LTTE — Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
MA — Master of Arts
MBA — Master of Business Administration
MBBS — Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery
MLA — Member of Legislative Assembly
MNC — Multinational Corporation
MO — Money Order
MP — Member of Parliament
Mr. — Mister (a form of address for a man (regardless of his marital status)
Mrs. — Missus/Missis (a married woman)
Ms. – A form of address for a woman regardless of her marital status
MSc. — Master of Science
MTNL — Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
NASA (acronym) — National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA)
NATO ((acronym) — North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NB — nota bene (note well)
NBT — National Book Trust
NCC — National Cadet Corps
NCERT — National Council of Educational Research and Training
NDA — National Defence Academy
NFDC — National Film Development Corporation
NIIT (both abbreviation & acronym) — National Institute of Information Technology
NRI — Non-resident Indian
OK — Okay (all correct) (used to express agreement or acceptance)
OPD — Outdoor Patients Department
PC — Personal Computer
Ph.D — Doctor of Philosophy
PIB — Press Information Bureau
PIN ((both abbreviation & acronym)) — Postal Index Number / Personal Identification Number
p.m. — post meridiem (after noon)
PM — Prime Minister
PNB — Punjab National Bank
PO — Post Office
PTI — Press Trust of India
PTO — Please Turn Over
Pvt. — Private
R&D — Research and Development
RBI — Reserve Bank of India
RSVP — repondez sil vous plait (please reply)
SAARC (acronym) — South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation
SAIL (acronym) — Steel Authority of India Limited
SBI — State Bank of India
SC — Supreme Court/Schedule Caste
SD – Standard Deviation (statistics) / South Dakota (in official postal use) / Sequence Data
SDF – Social Democratic Federation
SDI – Strategic Defense Initiative
SDLP – Social Democratic and Labour Party (UK)
SDO – Sub-divisional Officer (military)
SDP – Social Democratic Party (UK – history)
SDR – Special Drawing Right (from IMF – the International Monetary Fund)
SE – south-east / south-eastern; chemical symbol for Selenium
SEA (both abbreviation & acronym) – Single European Act
Sign. — Signature
SIM (acronym) — Subscriber Identification Module (Card)
SKU – Stock Keeping Unit
SLV — Satellite Launch Vehicle
SMS — Short Message Service
SOS — Save Our Souls
STD — Subscriber Trunk Dialling
TTE — Train Ticket Examiner
UFO — Unidentified Flying Object
UNESCO (acronym) — United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNI — United News of India
UNICEF (acronym) — United Nations Children’s Fund
UNO — United Nations Organization
UPSC — Union Public Service Commission
via — by way of
VIP — Very Important Person
viz. — videlicet (namely)
VPP — Value Payable Post
vs. — versus (against)
WHO (both abbreviation & acronym) — World Health Organization
WWF — Worldwide Fund for Nature
www — worldwide web
Xmas — Christmas
YMCA — Young Men’s Christian Association
YWCA — Young Women’s Christian Association
