AAA,administration,authorization,and authentication,American Automobile Association ("Triple-A"),anti-aircraft artillery,Amateur Athletic Association (of England),Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (Spanish,"Assistance,Consulting,and Administration"—Mexican professional wrestling promotion)
AAAI,Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence,formerly American Association for Artificial Intelligence
AAAS,American Association for the Advancement of Science
AAAV,Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle
AAC,American Athletic Conference,Army Air Corps (British Army)
AC,"Adriamycin-Cyclophosphamide (chemotherapy),Air Conditioning,Aircraftman,Alternating Current,Altocumulus,ante Christum (Latin,"before Christ"; see BC),ante cibum (Latin,"before meals"),Antigua and Barbuda (FIPS 10-4 country code),Associazione Calcio (Italian,"football (soccer) club"),A/C,Air Conditioned/Conditioning,Aircraft"
aC,Attocoulomb
AC1,Aircraftman 1st Class
AC2,Aircraftman 2nd Class
ACA,"Affordable Care Act,shorthand for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,commonly called 'Obamacare',Airspace Control Authority,Airspace Co-ordination Area,A Current Affair"
ACARS,Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System
ACAS,Aboriginal Children's Advancement Society,Advisory,Conciliation and Arbitration Service
ACB,Asociación de Clubes de Baloncesto (Spanish for "Association of Basketball Clubs")
ACCA,The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants,Automatic Cloud Cover Assessment
ACCAC,"Awdurdod Cymwysterau,Cwricwlwm ac Asesu Cymru (Qualifications,Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales)"
ACCD,American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities
ACCS,Air Communications and Control Squadron
ACDA,Arms Control & Disarmament Agency
ACDC,"Alternating Current Direct Current,the name of an Australian rock music band,a term for a bisexual person,A/Cdre,Air Commodore"
ACDT,"Apple Certified Desktop Technician,Australian Central Daylight Time"
ACES,"Aerolíneas Centrales de Colombia (Spanish,"Central Colombian Airlines"),Auxiliary Campus Enterprises and Services of Alfred State College"
ACF,"Administration for Children and Families,American Car and Foundry,American Culinary Federation"
ACHT,Average Call Hold Time
ACINT,Acoustic Intelligence
ACK,Acknowledge (telecommunications; cf. NAK)
ACL,"Access Control List,Anterior cruciate ligament; the initialism can also refer to an injury to this ligament.,Atlantic Coast Line Railroad"
ACLJ,American Center for Law and Justice
ACLOS,Automatic CLOS (missile control system)
ACLS,American Council of Learned Societies
ACLU,"American Civil Liberties Union,American Communist Lawyers Union (pejorative slang for the above)"
ACM,"many,including Association for Computing Machinery; see entry"
ACMC,(U.S.) Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps
ACN,"Airborne Communications Node,Australian Company Number (number issued by the Australian government as registration of a limited liability company)"
ACNA,Anglican Church in North America
ACO,Airspace Control Order
ACOBA,Advisory Committee on Business Appointments
ACOG,American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
ACOM,(U.S.) Atlantic Command
ACORN,Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
ACP,"African,Caribbean and Pacific Group of States,Air Control Point"
ACR,Advanced Concepts and Requirements
ACRI,African Crisis Initiative
ACRT,Advanced Concepts Research Tool simulator
ACS,"Affiliated Computer Services (NYSE ACS),Alaska Communications Service,American Cancer Society,American Chemical Society,Association of Caribbean States,Australian Computer Society"
ACSC,Army Command and Staff College (various nations)
ACST,American Cooperative School of Tunis
ACST,Australian Central Standard Time
ACT,"Adaptive Control of Thought (cognitive model),American College Test (ing Program),Australian Capital Territory (also postal symbol),ACT UP,AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power"
ACTD,Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration
ACTF,"(U.S.) Army Constructive Training Federation,Australian Children's Television Foundation,ACT-R,ACT-Rational (cognitive model),ACT-R/PM,ACT-R/Perceptual-Motor (cognitive model)"
ACTU,Australian Council of Trade Unions
ACU,American Conservative Union
ACUF,"Advisory Committee on Undersea Features,American Conservative Union Foundation"
AD,"Air Defence,Andorra (ISO 3166 digram),Anno Domini (Latin,"In the year of our Lord")"
ADA,"Air Defence Artillery,American Dental Association,Assistant District Attorney,Americans with Disabilities Act (see also the similar but non-acronymic Ada programming language)"
ADAC,Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (German for "General German Automobile Club")
ADAGE,Air Defense Air to Ground Engagement (simulation)
ADAP,AIDS Drug Assistance Program
ADAS,Asiago-DLR Asteroid Survey
ADAT,Alesis Digital Audio Tape (recording format)
ADATS,"Agricultural Development and Training Society,Air Defence Anti-Tank System,Australian Defence Air Traffic System"
ADB,Asian Development Bank
ADC,"Aide De Camp,U.S. Air Defense Command (1946-1992),Apple Display Connector,Program Against Digital Counterfeiting of Currency"
ADD,"Analog Digital Digital (CD quality),Attention-Deficit Disorder,Administration on Developmental Disabilities"
ADDIE,Analyze Design Develop Implement and Evaluate
ADDNS,Advanced Deployable Day/Night Simulation
ADF,Australian Defence Force,African Development Foundation
ADGB,Air Defence of Great Britain
ADHD,Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHS,Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome
ADI,Acceptable/Allowable Daily Intake
ADIZ,Air Defence Identification Zone
ADL,Anti-Defamation League
ADM,"Administrative,,Admiral,and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps,Archer Daniels Midland,Assistant Deputy Minister"
ADOA,Air Defence Operations Area
ADP,"Adenosine DiPhosphate,Army Doctrine Publication (UK,Canada,Australia),Automatic/Automated Data Processing"
AE,"Armed Forces Africa/Canada/Europe/Middle East (postal symbol),United Arab Emirates (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 country code),Artix Entertainment,American Eagle,A&E, Arts & Entertainment Network,the original name for the U.S. TV channel now known as A&E Network"
AEGIS,Airborne Early warning Ground environment Interface Segment (fake etymology)
AESR,Aeronautical Equipment Service Record
AEST,Australian Eastern Standard Time
aet,After extra time (Football)
AEW,"Airborne Early Warning,Airborne Electronic Warfare"
AF,"Afghanistan (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Air Force,As f*ck"
aF,Attofarad
AFA,"U.S. Air Force Academy,Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (Spanish for 'Argentine Football Association')"
AFAIC,As Far As I'm Concerned
AFAICT,As Far As I Can Tell
AFAIK,As Far As I Know
AFAIR,As Far As I Remember/Recall
AFAM,Associazione Friulana di Astronomia e Meteorologia (Italian,"Friuli Association of Astronomy and Meteorology"),Department of African and Afro-American Studies,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — notable for its links to the school's academic-athletic scandal in the 2010s
AFATDS,Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System
AFC,American Football Conference,Asian Football Confederation
AFCEA,Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association
AFDB,African Development Bank
AFES,Automatic Fire Extinguishing System
AFG,Afghanistan (ISO 3166 trigram)
AFI,French Territory of the Afars and Issas (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete since 1977),"Agencia Federal de Investigaciónes" (México)
AFIS,Automated Fingerprint Identification System,American Forces Information Service
AFIST,Abrams Full Crew Interactive Skills Trainer
AFJ,April Fool's Joke
AFK,Away From Keyboard (Internet chat abbreviation)
AFL,American Federation of Labor,American Football League — either the 1960s league that merged into the National Football League,or one of several other leagues of American football,Arena Football League,Australian Football League,AFL-CIO,American Federation of Labor,Congress of Industrial Organizations
AFLAC,American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus
AFM,Army Field Manual (UK; the U.S. more frequently uses just FM),Atomic Force Microscope,Aviation Fleet Maintenance
AFO,Association of Field Ornithologists
AFOSR,U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research
AFP,Agence France-Presse (French,"French Press Agency"),Australian Federal Police
AFQT,Armed Forces Qualification Test
AFRC,Air Force Reserve Command
AFRL,Air Force Research Laboratory
AFROTC,Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps
AFRRI,(i,U.S.) Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute
AFRTS,Armed Forces Radio and Television Service
AFS,Active Front Steering,Air Facility Sub-System,Amniotic Fluid-derived Stem cell,AFS&A or AFSA,U.S. Air Force Studies and Analysis
AFSC,U.S. Air Force Staff College (obsolete; replaced with JFSC),U.S. Air Force Systems Command
AFSCN,U.S. Air Force Satellite Control Network
AFSPC,Air Force Space Command
AFT,American Farmland Trust
AFV,armoured fighting vehicle
AFWA,Air Force Weather Agency,Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies,AG[edit]
AG,air gunner,Aktiengesellschaft (German,"incorporated"),Algeria (FIPS 10-4 country code),Antigua and Barbuda (ISO 3166 digram),Assemblies of God
AIS,Australian Institute of Sport,Automatic Identification System
AISB,(British Society for the Study of) Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour
aJ,Attojoule
AJ,Azerbaijan (FIPS 10-4 country code)
Ajax,Asynchronous JavaScript And XML
AJD,Astronomical Julian day
AJP,Allied Joint Publication
AJPW,All Japan Pro Wrestling
AK,Alaska (postal symbol)
aK,Attokelvin
AKA,Above knee amputation (orthopaedic usage)
AKDT,Alaska Standard Daylight Saving Time (UTC−8 hours)
AKP,Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Turkish,"Justice and Development Party")
AKST,Alaska Standard Time (UTC−9 hours)
AL,Alabama (postal symbol),Albania (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Anno Lucis (Latin,"Year of Light",in Masonic tradition,most often seen on plaques bearing the founding dates of buildings,in years AD and years AL)
Al,Aluminium
aL,Attolitre
ALA,Åland Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)
ALAP,As Long/Late As Possible
ALARM,Air-Launched Anti-Radar Missile
ALB,Albania (ISO 3166 trigram)
ALD,Accounting Line Designator (nuclear weapon targeting)
ALERT,Advanced Linked Extended Reconnaissance and Targeting,Attack and Launch Early Reporting to Theatre
ALF,Africa Leadership Forum,Alien Life Form (cf. ALF (TV series)),Animal Liberation Front
ALG,Algeria (IOC and FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166)
ALGOL,ALGOrithmic Language
ALOA,Associated Locksmiths of America,Inc.
ALOC,Air Lines Of Communication,Average Length of Calls
ALPA,Air Line Pilots Association
ALS,Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,Automatic Landing System
ALSHS,Abraham Low Self-Help Systems
ALSP,Aggregate Level Simulation Protocol
ALTE,Association of Language Testers in Europe
Am,Americium
AM-many,including Amplitude Modulation and Ante Meridiem; see entry,Armenia (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
AM1,Airman 1st class
AMA,American Medical Association,Australian Medical Association
AMC,Adaptive modulation and coding (digital communications),U.S. Air Mobility Command,American Motors Corporation,American Movie Classics (TV network; now known simply by the initials),U.S. Army Materiel Command
AMCB,U.S. Army/Marine Corps Board
AMFOM,Advanced Missile Fly Out Model ("am-fomm")
AMFR,Age-specific Marital Fertility Rate,Amplitude Modulation Following Response
AMFRS,Advanced Multi-Function Radio Frequency System,Automatic Multisensor Feature-based Recognition System
AML,Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
AMLCD,Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display
AMLO,Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexican politician),Anti-Money Laundering Office (Thailand government agency)
AMO,Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
AMOLED,Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode
AMOS,Advanced MOrtar System,Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory
AN,Andorra (FIPS 10-4 country code),Netherlands Antilles (ISO 3166 digram)
aN,Attonewton
ANA,Administration for Native Americans,Afghan National Army,All Nippon Airways,Anti-Nuclear Anti-body,Australian National Airways,Australian Natives' Association
ANC,African National Congress
AND,Andorra (ISO 3166 trigram)
ANFO,Ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (explosive)
ANGLiCo,Air/Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
ANL,Argonne National Laboratory
ANM,Acoustic Noise Monitor
ANOVA,ANalysis Of VAriance
ANS,Applied and Natural Sciences
ANSI,American National Standards Institute
ANT,Netherlands Antilles (ISO 3166 trigram),Antigua and Barbuda (IOC trigram,but not ISO 3166 or FIFA)
ANTM,America's Next Top Model
ANTY,Acronyms,No Thank You
ANWR,Arctic National Wildlife Refuge /ˈænwɑr/
ANZ,Australia and New Zealand Banking Group
ANZAC,Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
AO,Angola (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Approach Officer (submarine),Area of Operations
AOC,Air Operations Centre,Air Officer Commanding
AOD,Adrenalin O.D. (punk rock band)
AOI,Angle Of Incidence Arab Organization for Industrialization
APOLLO,Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation
APP,Allied Procedural Publication
APR,Annual Percentage Rate
APS,Advanced Photo System (cf. APS-C,an image sensor format based on the size of the original APS film frame),American Physical Society,Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome,AQ[edit]
AQ,AdventureQuest,American Samoa (FIPS 10-4 territory code),Antarctica (ISO 3166 digram),Automatic qualifier,a term used by U.S. sports media from 1998 to 2013 to refer to the six conferences whose champions automatically entered the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series of college football
AQIM,Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
AR,Argentina (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Arkansas (postal symbol),Armour,Arunachal Pradesh (Indian state code)
ASOC, Air Sovereignty Operations Centre,Air Support Operations Centre,Airport Security and Operations Centre,Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition,Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus,Australian Standard Offence Classification
ASP,Active Server Pages,American Society of Primatologists,Ammunition Supply Point,Application Service Provider (cf internet service provider),Astronomical Society of the Pacific,Association of Surfing Professionals
ASPI,Australian Strategic Policy Institute
ASR,Alkali-silica reaction,Anti Slip Regulation
ASRAAM,Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile
ASSC,Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
AST,Atlantic Standard Time (UTC−4 hours)
ASTIA,Armed Services Technical Information Agency
ASTM,American Society for Testing and Materials
ASTREA,Aerial Support To Regional Enforcement Agencies (sheriff's air support unit)
ASUW,AntiSUrface Warfare
ASVAB,Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery(taken by juniors in high school in the USA)
ASVEL,Association Sportive Villeurbanne Éveil Lyonnais (Association Sportive is French for "Sporting Association"; the club was founded through the merger of AS Villeurbanne and Éveil Lyonnais)
ASW,AntiSubmarine Warfare
ASWORG,(U.S.) AntiSubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group
AUC,"Ab Urbe Condita / Anno Urbis Conditae (Latin "from the founding of the city" / "in the year since the founding of the city") (of Rome),Area Under the Curve (concentration time curve; medicine)"
BAR,"Barbados (IOC trigram,but not FIFA or ISO 3166),British American Racing,Browning Automatic Rifle,Buy-American Restrictions,BARD, Binational Agricultural Research and Development fund (between the US and Israel),BARDA, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency,BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit,BAS, Battalion Aid Station,BASE, Building,Antenna,Span,Earth (parachute from),BASF, Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory,a German chemicals company),BASIC, Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (acronym was added later,originally it was simply Basic),BAT, Basic Aid Training,BATF, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,and Firearms,BATS, Behavior Analysis Training System,Bradley Advanced Training System,BATTeRS, Bisei Asteroid Tracking Telescope for Rapid Survey,BB[edit]"
BOM,"Base Object Model,Bill Of Materials,Block of the Month quilting term,Business opportunity meeting"
BOP,Balance of Payments,
BOPB,Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (the complete name of the rugby club),
BOPD,Barrel of Oil Per Day
BOS,Battlefield Operating System
BOT,"Balance of Trade,Botswana (IOC and FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166),Build Operate Transfer,Bank of Thailand,BP[edit]"
BP,"Battle Position,British Petroleum (today,BP does not officially stand for anything),Solomon Islands (FIPS 10-4 country code; from British Protectorate of the Solomon Islands),Bp, Bishop,BPD, Bipolar Personality Disorder,BPM, Beats Per Minute,BPMo, Business Process Mobility"
BQ,"British Antarctic Territory (former ISO 3166 digram; merged with AQ in 1979),Caribbean Netherlands (current ISO 3166 digram; based on the entity's alternate name of Bonaire,Sint Eustatius and Saba),Navassa Island (FIPS 10-4 territory code)"
BR,"Brazil (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 country code),Bihar (Indian state code),British Rail,Break Ranks (marching band term)"
BRA,Brazil (ISO 3166 trigram)
BRAG,Bicycle Ride Across Georgia
BRASS,"Breathe,Relax,Aim,Sight,Squeeze (acronym for using a rifle)"
BSE,"Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (better known as mad cow disease)"
BSN,Baloncesto Superior Nacional (Spanish,"National Superior Basketball"; top Puerto Rican league),Bank Simpanan Nasional (Malay,"National Savings Bank"; government-owned Malaysian bank)
BSNL,Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited,Bachelor of Science in Nursing
BSoD,Blue Screen of Death (distinct from BSD)
BSP,"Between-Show Promotion,Binary Space Partitioning,Board Support Package,British Standard Pipe (screw thread),Business-sponsored,Bone sialoprotein"
BT,Baal teshuva (Hebrew,"master of repentance"),used to describe a Jew who adopts Orthodox Judaism as an adult,Bathythermograph,Bhutan (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),BitTorrent,British Telecom,the former name of the company now known as BT Group,BTDT, Been There,Done That,Bti, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis,BTID, Battlefield Target Identification Device,BTIS, Battlefield Target Identification System
CA,"California (postal symbol),Canada (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Catalonia,Civil Affairs,Close Armour,Cocaine Anonymous,Computer Associates,Counter-Air,Cricket Australia"
CAA,"Canadian Automobile Association,(NORAD) Center for Aerospace Analysis,(U.S.) Center for Army Analysis,(U.S.) Clean Air Act,(U.S. Army) Concepts Analysis Agency,Civil Aviation Authority,Colonial Athletic Association"
CAAT,"Campaign Against Arms Trade,Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing"
CAC,"California Association of Criminalists,Chronic Asymptomatic [Disease] Carrier"
Canola,"Canadian oil,low acid (referring to a specific cultivar of rapeseed bred to have a low erucic acid content)"
CAPES,"CAPability Evaluation System,Combined Arms Planning and Execution System"
CARE,"Citizens Association for Racial Equality (former New Zealand organisation),Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe,Cooperative for Aid and Relief Everywhere (originally Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe)"
CCC,"Canterbury Clothing Company,Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.,1930s and 1940s),Corpus Christi College,Oxford"
CCCP,"Central Committee of the Communist Party,Cyrillic for SSSR (Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik,Russian Союз Советских Социалистических Республик,Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)"
CCD,"Charge-Coupled Device,Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (Catechism)"
CCIF,"Comité consultatif international des communications téléphoniques à grande distance (French for International Telephone Consultative Committee,merged with the CCIT in 1956 to form the CCITT)"
CCII,"Command and Control Information Infrastructure,Community Capital Investment Initiative"
CCIR,"Comité consultatif international pour la radio (French for Consultative Committee on International Radio,became the ITU Radiocommunication Sector,ITU-R,in 1992),Commander's Critical Information Requirements"
CCIT,"Comité consultatif international télégraphique (French for International Telegraph Consultative Committee,merged with the CCIF in 1956 to form the CCITT)"
CCITT,"Comité consultatif international téléphonique et télégraphique (French for International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee,became the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector,ITU-T,in 1992)"
CCK,"Cholecystokinin,Cocos (Keeling) Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)"
CCM,"Canada Cycle & Motor Co. Ltd. (now split into two separate companies bearing the CCM name,one manufacturing bicycles and the other ice hockey equipment),Contemporary Christian music"
CCOC,"Canadian Children's Opera Chorus,Crosley Car Owners Club"
CECOM,U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command
CEDEX,Courrier d'entreprise à distribution exceptionnelle (French,"Company Mail with Exceptional Distribution"; "exceptional" refers to the volume of mail)
CEGEP,Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel (French,"College of General and Vocational Education")
CEI,Competitive Enterprise Institute
CENTCOM,United States Central Command
CENTO,Central Treaty Organization (Baghdad Pact)
CENZUB,Centre d'entraînement aux actions en zone urbaine (French,"Urban Operations Training Centre")
CEPT,Conférence européenne des administrations des postes et des télécommunications (French,"European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations")
CMW,"Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada,Canadian Manufacturing Week,Canadian Music Week,Catherine McAuley Westmead (school in New South Wales,Australia),Chicago,Missouri and Western (Railway),Compartmented Mode Workstation,Compton's Most Wanted,Continuous Microwave (processing technology),Custom Maintenance Wizard (Microsoft Office Resource Kit)"
CN,"Canadian National (railway; also the AAR reporting mark for said company),China (ISO 3166 digram),Comoros (FIPS 10-4 country code)"
CNA,"Center for Naval Analyses,Certified Network Administrator,Computer Network Attack,Continental (Casualty Company),National (Fire Insurance Company),and American (Casualty Company),the three companies that merged to form what is now known as CNA Financial"
CNBC,Consumer News and Business Channel
CND,"Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,Computer Network Defence"
CNE,"Canadian National Exhibition,Computer Network Exploitation,Certified Network Engineer"
COGENT,Cognitive Objects within a Graphical EnviroNmenT
COIL,Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser
COK,Cook Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)
COL,Colombia (ISO 3166 trigram)
COLA,Cost Of Living Adjustment
COM,Comoros (ISO 3166 trigram),Component Object Model
COMECON,Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (economic counterpart of the Warsaw Pact,1949-1991)
CONAD,U.S. Continental Air Defense Command
CONCACAF,Confederation Of North,Central American and Caribbean Association Football
CONMEBOL,Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol or Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol (respectively Spanish and Portuguese for "South American Football Confederation")
CONUS,Continental United States
COO,Chief Operating Officer
COPE,U.K. Committee On Publication Ethics
COPUS,U.K. Committee on the Public Understanding of Science
CORD,Common Operational Requirements Document
CORE,Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education
COROT,COnvection,ROtation and planetary Transits
COS,Cooper Ornithological Society
COSER,COoperative SERvice
CoT,Car of Tomorrow (former NASCAR race car design)
CSA,"Canadian Soccer Association,Canadian Space Agency,Canadian Standards Association,Child Support Agency,Command Staff Advisor,Community-supported agriculture,Confederate States of America,Corps Storage Area,Czech Airlines,C/S/A,CINC,Service,and Agency"
CSC,"Closed Spacelike Curve (relativity),Compact system camera,Computer Sciences Corporation,Computer Security Centre,CSCC Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists"
CT,"Computed tomography (medical scan also known as a CAT scan),Central Time zone,Chrono Trigger (Computer/Video games),Connecticut (postal symbol),Canterbury (postal symbol),Chhattisgarh (Indian state code)"
CTA,Central African Republic (FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166 or IOC),Chicago Transit Authority,Comando-Geral de Tecnologia Aerospacial (Portuguese,[Brazilian] "General Command for Aerospace Technology")
CTBT,Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty
CTDB,Compact Terrain Data Base (file format)
CTE,Canton and Enderbury Islands (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1984),Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
CTS,Clear-To-Send,Collective Training Standards,Communications Technology Service,Contract Technical Services,Conversation Time Sharing,COSMIC Top Secret
CTSS,Compatible Time-Sharing System
CTU,Counter Terrorist Unit (fictional branch of the Central Intelligence Agency in the television action series 24)
CTVT,Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour
CU,Carrie Underwood,Cuba (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
Cu,Copper (Latin Cuprum)
CUB,Cuba (ISO 3166 trigram)
CUCV,Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle
CUNY,City University of New York ("CUE-knee")
CUPE,Canadian Union of Public Employees ("CUE-pee")
CUPS,Common Unix Printing System
CUPW,Canadian Union of Postal Workers
CUREA,Consortium for Undergraduate Research and Education in Astronomy
CuW,Copper-tungsten pseudo-alloy (from the chemical symbols of the two component elements)
CX,"Christmas Island (ISO 3166 digram),or: One Hundred and Ten (in Roman numerals)"
CXR,Christmas Island (ISO 3166 trigram)
CY,"Calendar year, or: Cyprus (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)"
CYM,Cayman Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)
CZE,Czech Republic (ISO 3166 trigram)
CZF,(Christian Zombie Fan)
CZMA,(US) Coastal Zone Management Act
d,Deci
D,Deuterium
DA,Denmark (FIPS 10-4 country code),Debtors Anonymous,U.S. Department of the Army,District Attorney
DADVSI,Loi sur le droit d’auteur et les droits voisins dans la société de l’information (French,"Law on copyrights and related rights in the information society")
DAES,Defence Acquisition Executive Summary,(UK MoD) Directorate of Analysis,Experimentation and Simulation
DAF,Dissolved Air Flotation,a technique used in water treatment
DAFIF,Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File
DDP,Danish Design Prize,Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German,"German Democratic Party",former political party in Weimar Germany),Diamond Dallas Page (American professional wrestler)
DDR,Dance Dance Revolution,Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German,"German Democratic Republic" (GDR),East Germany),Double Data Rate,East Germany (ISO 3166 trigram,obsolete since 1990),DDR&E,(U.S.) Defense Department Research and Engineering
DEFRA,(UK) Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs
DELT,Dual Ended Line Test (ing)
DEM,Data Exchange Mechanism,Digital Elevation Model
DEN,Denmark (IOC and FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166)
DEPSECDEF,(U.S.) Deputy Secretary of Defense
DERA,British Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (1995-2001)
DES,Deep Ecliptic Survey
DEU,Germany (ISO 3166 trigram)
DF,Direct Fire,Direction Finding,Distrito Federal (Spanish and Portuguese for "federal district")
DFAD,Digital Feature Analysis Data ("dee-fad")
DFAS,(U.S.) Defense Finance and Accounting Service
DFB,Deutscher Fußball-Bund (German for "German Football Association")
DFCB,Data Format Control Book
DfID,UK Department for International Development
DFL,Democratic-Farmer-Labor (the full designation of the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party),Deutsche Fußball Liga (German for "German Football League"),the operator of the top two leagues of German football
DFM,Discrete Field Model see Superluminal motion
DFM,Dynamic Flowgraph Methodology
DFSP,Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
DfT,UK Department for Transport
DFTBA,Don't Forget To Be Awesome,a term commonly used by the Vlogbrothers
DG,Dei gratia (Latin,"by the grace of God"),Director-General,Data General
DGA,Direction générale des armées (French "Armed Forces General Directorate")
DGPS,Differential GPS
DGZ,Desired Ground Zero
DH,dear husband (increasingly prevalent on social mailing lists,blogs,and bulletin boards),Designated hitter
DHA,DocosaHexaenoic Acid
DHHS,(U.S.) Department of Health and Human Services
DHL,Dalsey,Hillblom,and Lynn (courier service)
DHRA,(U.S.) DoD Human Resources Activity
DHS,U.S. Department of Homeland Security
DHSS,UK Department of Health and Social Security
DHTFYSS,U.S. Don't Have Time For You Silly S****
DHY,Dahomey (ISO 3166 trigram; became BEN for Benin in 1977)
DIA,U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
DIAC,Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Australia) [1]
DiC,Design Island Centre (computing usually used in a teaching situation)
DICASS,DIrectional Command Activated Sonobuoy System
DIFAR,DIrectional Frequency Analysis and Recording
DIME,Dense Inert Metal Explosive
DIN,Deutsches Institut für Normung (German,"German Institute for Standardization"),Drug Identification Number (Canadian drug marketing requirement)
DINA-(p/a) Diesel Nacional (Spanish,"National Diesel"—Mexican bus and truck manufacturer now known as DINA),Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (Spanish,"National Intelligence Directorate"—former secret police of Chile)
DINKY,Double Income,No Kids Yet
DIP,Dual In-line Package (electronics)
DIPS,Defense independent pitching statistics
DIR,Defence Industrial Research
DIS,Defence Intelligence Staff,(U.S.) Defense Investigative Service,Distributed Interactive Simulation,Draft International Standard (ISO)
DISA,U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency,Distinguished Individual Service Award
DISCOM,Division Support Command
DISE,Deployable Intelligence Support Element
DISSTAF,DIS Search and Target Acquisition Fidelity experiment
DITY,Do-It-Yourself
DIVAD,Division Air Defence
DIY,Do It Yourself
DJ,Disc Jockey,Dinner Jacket,Djibouti (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 country code)
DJD,Degenerative Joint Disease,Dublin Julian Day,Discoveries in the Judaean Desert
DJI,Djibouti (ISO 3166 trigram)
DJS,Director,Joint Staff
DK,Denmark (ISO 3166 digram)
DL,Dexter's Laboratory
DLA,U.S. Defense Logistics Agency,Dental Laboratories Association
DLIC,Detachment Left-In-Contact
DLIR,Depot-Level Inspection and Repair
DLPMC,DorsoLateral PreMotor Cortex
DLR,Deutsches Zentrum für Luft,und Raumfahrt (German,German Aerospace Centre),Docklands Light Railway
DLRP,Data Link Reference Point
DLS,Deep Lens Survey
DLSA,(U.S.) Defense Legal Services Agency
DLSc,Diploma in Library Science
DLSC,U.S. Defense Logistics Services Center,U.S. Defense Logistics Support Command,Department of Library Special Collections (Western Kentucky University Libraries),Direct Loan Servicing Center,Directorate of Land Strategic Concepts (Canada),Dominican Lay Scholars Community
DLTBGYD,Don't let the bastards grind you down
DM,Dominica (ISO 3166 digram),Dungeon Master (role-playing games)
DMA,Designated market area (primarily a U.S. term),U.S. Defense Mapping Agency (became NIMA,then NGA),Direct Memory Access (computing),Dominica (ISO 3166 trigram)
DMC,(U.S.) Defense Management Council
DMCA,Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DMD,dentariae medicinae doctor (Latin,"doctor of dental medicine"),Digital Micromirror Device,Digital Multilayer Disk
DRMS,(U.S.) Defense Revitalization and Marketing Service
DRPR,Drawing Practices
DRT,Document Related Technologies
Ds,Darmstadtium
DS,Dear son (increasingly prevalent on social mailing lists,blogs,and bulletin boards),Defence Scientist,Direct Support,Dust Storm (METAR Code)
DSA,(U.S.) Defense Support Activities,Division Support Area
DSAA,(U.S.) Defense Security Assistance Agency,Driving Schools Association of the Americas,DECT Standard Authentication Algorithm
DSAS,Disney Sing Along Songs
DSB,(U.S.) Defense Science Board
DSC,Differential Scanning Calorimeter,Digital Selective Calling,Digital Still Camera,Distinguished Service Cross,Doctor of Surgical Chiropody (obsolete),Document structure convention (PostScript programming),Dynamic Stability Control
DSCS,U.S. Defense Satellite Communications System
DSCSOC,DSCS Operations Center
DSD,Defence Studies Department (King's College,London)
DSDS,Deutschland sucht den Superstar (German,"Germany Seeks the Superstar"),the German version of the Idol series
DSE,Dry Sheep Equivalent
DSG,Direct-Shift Gearbox
DSID,Dismounted Soldier Identification System
DSL,Digital Subscriber Line
DSLR,Digital single-lens reflex (camera)
DSM,Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
DSN,Deep Space Network
dsp,decessit sine prole (Latin,"died without issue"),genealogy short-hand
DSP,Defense Standardization Program,Defense Support Program,
dspl,decessit sine prole legitima (Latin,"died without legitimate issue")
DSPL,Design Specialists and Plans Language
dspm,decessit sine prole mascula [superstite] (Latin,"died without surviving male issue" )
dspml,decessit sine prole mascula legitima (Latin,"died without legitimate male issue")
dspms,decessit sine prole mascula superstite (Latin,"died without surviving male issue")
dsps,Decessit sine prole superstite (Latin,"died without surviving issue")
DTM,Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (German,"German Touring Car Masters",a current motor racing series),Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (German,"German Touring Car Championship",a defunct motor racing series)
DTMF,Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling
DTO,Disruptive Technology Office (was ARDA)
DTOMLS,Doctrine,Training,Organization,Materiel,Leader and Soldier development (mnemonic)
DUI,Data Use Identifier,Data Use Institute,Davis Unified Ignition,Diving Unlimited International,Documento Único de Identidad,Documento Unico de Importación,Driving Under the Influence,Duke University Improv
DUMBO,Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (Brooklyn neighborhood)
DUSD,(U.S.) Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense
DV,Daily Value (FDA food guide),Deo volente (Latin,"God willing")
DVLC,UK Driver and Vehicle Licencing Centre
dvm,decessit vita matris (Latin,"died in the lifetime of the mother")
DVM,Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
DVO,Direct View Optics
DVOM,Digital Volt-Ohm Meter
dvp,decessit vita patris (Latin,"died in the lifetime of the father")
DVP,various meanings (disambiguation page)
dvu,decessit vita uxoris (Latin,"died in the lifetime of spouse")
DW,Drum Workshop
DWI,Dance With Intensity,Danish West Indies,Diffusion-weighted imaging,Direct water injection,Disaster Welfare Inquiry,Drinking Water Inspectorate,Driving While Intoxicated/Impaired
DWIM,Do What I Mean
DWM,Doctor Who Magazine
DWTS,Dancing with the Stars
DWW,Down with Webster
DX,Dexterity (role-playing games),DeXtrorphan,Distant (radio),D-Generation X (professional wrestling stable)
DXA,Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry
DXM,DeXtroMethorphan
DY,Dahomey (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete since 1977)
Dy,Dysprosium
DZ,Algeria (ISO 3166 digram),Drizzle (METAR Code),Drop Zone
EDD,Earliest due date,Electron-detachment dissociation,Elena Delle Donne (American basketball player),Employment Development Department (California state agency),End-diastolic dimension,Expected Date of Delivery (pregnancy)
EDGAR,Electronic Data Gathering,Analysis,and Retrieval (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings database)
EDH,Eastman Dental Hospital
EDS,Electronic Data Systems,Electronic Differential System
EDSA,Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (a major thoroughfare in Manila with great significance to post-1980 Philippines history)
EHA,Education for All Handicapped Children Act (U.S. federal legislation; since superseded by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act),Emotional Health Anonymous
EHF,Extremely High Frequency
EHR,Equipment History Record
Ei,Exbi
EI,Ireland (FIPS 10-4 country code; from Éire)
EIA,Environmental Impact Assessment
EIAH,Encyclopedia of Iranian Architectural History
EIAH,Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain
EIC,East India Company
EICS,East India Company's Service
eID,electronic ID
EIRP,Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
EIS,Environmental Impact Statement
EJ,Exajoule
EK,Equatorial Guinea (FIPS 10-4 country code),Exakelvin
EKG,Electrocardiogram (from German Elektrokardiogramm)
EOS,Earth Observation Satellite, Electro-Optical System,Canon's autofocusing system for film and digital SLR cameras,Electrophoresis Operations in Space,a space manufacturing project of the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company
EPLRS,Enhanced Position Location Reporting System ("ee-plarz")
EPO,Ellinikí Podosferikí Omospondía (Greek Ελληνική Ποδοσφαιρική Ομοσπονδία,translated as "Hellenic Football Federation"),European Patent Organisation or its main organ,the European Patent Office,Erythropoietin
EPOS,Electronic Point Of Sale
EPPA,Employee Polygraph Protection Act
EPR,European Pressurised [Nuclear] Reactor
EPW,Earth Penetrator Weapon/Warhead,Economic and Political Weekly (Indian publication),Enemy Prisoner of War,EQ[edit]
EQ,Emotional Quotient
EQG,Equatorial Guinea (FIFA trigram,but not IOC or ISO 3166)
ER,Emergency Room,Eritrea (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 country code)
Er,Erbium
ERA,Earned run average,Engineering Research Associates,Equal Rights Amendment,English Racing Automobiles,European Railway Agency
FBIDST,Fellow of the British Institute of Dental and Surgical Technologists
FBIS,Foreign Broadcast Information Service
FBM,Board foot
FBR,Fast Breeder Reactor,Foundation for Biomedical Research,Friedman,Billings,Ramsey (now known as Arlington Asset Investment)
FBS-Federal Bureau of Statistics (Pakistan),Fetal bovine serum,Football Bowl Subdivision (U.S. college football),Fukuoka Broadcasting Corporation,FC[edit]
FEATS,Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies link title
FEB,Federación Española de Baloncesto (Spanish,"Spanish Basketball Federation"),Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (Dutch,"Federation Honorary Division (of) Basketball"),the former name of the basketball competition now known in Dutch by the English-language Dutch Basketball League,Força Expedicionária Brasileira (Portuguese,"Brazilian Expeditionary Force")
FFA,Football Federation Australia,Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency,Free-Fire Area,Fusiform Face Area,Future Farmers of America (today the National FFA Organization)
FFB,Frum From Birth (referring to an observant Jew born into a religiously observant family)
FFC,Free For Chat
FFE,Fukuoka Futures Exchange
FFF,Fédération française de football (French,"French Football Federation")
FIBA,originally Fédération internationale de basket-ball amateur (French,"International Amateur Basketball Federation"); since 1989, Fédération internationale de basket-ball
FIBUA,Fighting In Built-Up Areas
FIC,Fellowship for Intentional Community
FID,Foreign Internal Defence
FIE,Fly-In Echelon
FIFA,Fédération internationale de football association (French,"International Association Football Federation")
FIFe,Fédération internationale féline (French,"International Feline Federation")
FIG,Fédération internationale des géomètres (French,"International Federation of Surveyors"),Fédération internationale de gymnastique (French,"International Federation of Gymnastics"),Feminist Improvising Group (music ensemble)
FIGJAM,Fuck I'm Good,Just Ask Me
FILA,Fédération internationale des luttes associées (French,"International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles"),former name of the sport governing body now known as United World Wrestling
FIMPT,Fellow of the Institute of Maxillofacial Prosthetists and Technologists
FIN,Finland (ISO 3166 trigram)
FINA,(p/a) Fédération internationale de natation (French,"International Swimming Federation")
FIR,Final Inspection Report,Federazione Italiana Rugby (Italian,"Italian Rugby (Union) Federation")
FIRES,Fever Induced Refractory Epilepsy Syndrome or Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome
FLQ,Front de libération du Québec (French for "Québec Liberation Front")
FLSA,Fair Labor Standards Act
FLTSAT,Fleet Satellite
FLTSATCOM,Fleet Satellite Communication System
FLUBOS,Fat,Lazy,Useless,Bag Of Shit
FM,Factory Mutual http://fmglobal.com
FM,Federal Magistrate (Australian post-nominal),Federated States of Micronesia (postal symbol; ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 territory code),Field Manual,Flight Manager,Frequency Modulation (electronics)
fm,Femtometre
Fm,Fermium
FMC,Federal Magistrates' Court (an Australian federal court,formerly FMS),Food Machinery Corporation (original name of the company now known as FMC Corporation)
FMCA,Federal Magistrates' Court of Australia (used for citing decisions of the FMC other than family law decisions)
FMCAfam,Federal Magistrates' Court of Australia: family (used for citing family law decisions of the FMC)
FMCG,(Fast Moving Consumer Goods)
FME,Formal Methods Europe
FMECA,Failure Modes and Effect Criticality Analysis
FMJD,Fédération Mondiale du Jeu de Dames[2]
FMLA,Family Medical Leave Act
Fmr,Former (As in "Fmr. president")
fMRI,Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
FMSF,False Memory Syndrome Foundation
FMTV,Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles
fN,Femtonewton
FNA,Functional Needs Analysis
FOAD,Fuck Off And Die
FOAF,Friend Of A friend
FOB,Forward Operating Base
FoB,Free On Board (shipping)
FOC,Full Operational Capability,First of Class
FoE,Friends of the Earth
FOGC,Federal Oil and Gas Council
FOH,Front Of House
FOIA,Freedom of Information Act
FOM,Federation Object Model
FONSI,Finding of No Significant Impact
FOO,Forward Observation Officer
FOOP,Friends Of Organ Pipes (Volunteer group)
FOR,Field Of Regard,Frame Of Reference
FoS,Family of Systems
FOS,Florida Ornithological Society,Full Operational Status
FOSE,Fallout 3 Script Extender
FOSE,Federal Office Systems Expo
FOT,Free on truck
FOTA,Fellow of the Orthodontic Technicians Association
FOTC,Flight of the Conchords
FOUO,For Official Use Only
FP,French Polynesia (FIPS 10-4 territory code)
FPF,Federação Portuguesa de Futebol ("Portuguese Football Federation" in that language),Final Protective Fire
FPS,Fire Prevention System
FQ,Baker Island (FIPS 10-4 territory code),French Southern and Antarctic Territories (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1979)
FR,France (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
Fr,Francium
FRA,Federal Railroad Administration,France (ISO 3166 trigram)
FRAND,Fair,reasonable,and non-discriminatory (concept in standards-setting and intellectual property law)
FRCP,Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
FRICBM,Full Range ICBM
FRO,Faroe Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)
FRR,Falls Road Railroad (reporting mark),Federaţia Română de Radioamatorism (Romanian,"Romanian Amateur Radio Federation"),Fix,Rebuild,Replace,Federaţia Română de Rugby (Romanian,"Romanian Rugby (Union) Federation")
FRS,Fellow of the Royal Society,U.S. Federal Reserve System
FRSA,Fellow of the Royal Society of Art
FRY,Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
fs,Femtosecond
fS,Femtosiemens
FSA,Fire Support Area,UK Food Standards Agency,Functional Solution Analysis
FSB,Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoi Federatsii (Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности Росси́йской Федера́ции,Russian "Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation",succeeded the FSK in 1995),Forward Support Battalion
FSC,Federal Supply Classification,Forest Stewardship Council (ecological pressure group
FSCL,Fire Support Co-ordination Line
FSE,Fire Support Element
FSF,Free Software Foundation
FSH,Follicle Stimulating Hormone
FSI,Fuel Stratified Injection
FSK,Federal'naya Sluzhba Kontrrazvedki (Федера́льная Слу́жба Контрразве́дки,Russian "Federal Counterintelligence Service",succeeded the KGB in 1991)
FSM,Federated States of Micronesia (ISO 3166 trigram),Flying Spaghetti Monster (satirical religion)
FSO,Fire Support Officer,Flotilla Staff Officer,Foreign Service Officer
FSS,Fire Support Station
FSSP,Families of Structurally Similar Proteins
FST,Finance Support Team,Finlands Svenska Television (Finland's Swedish-language television),Future Soviet Tank (Cold War era)
FSTC,Foreign Science Technology Center (now NGIC)
FSV,Fire Support Vehicle,Fisheries Survey Vessel,Flexible Sender Validation,Fort St. Vrain,Fußball und Sportverein (German "Football and Sport Association",as in FSV Mainz),FT[edit]
fT,Femtotesla
FTC,Federal Trade Commission
FTE,Full Time Equivalent
FTL,Faster Than Light
FTS,Flight Termination System used during some rocket launches
FTW,For The Win (a commonly used phrase used online to indicate success) F@#K The World,Forever Together Where ever (gang slogan)
FU,Smoke (METAR Code)
FUBAR,Fucked/Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair
FUCK,For,Unlawful,Carnal,Knowledge (Van Halen album title)
FUD,Fear,Uncertainty & Doubt (marketing strategy)
fV,Femtovolt
fW,Femtowatt
FW,Forward
FWC,Football World Cup
FWF,Fixed Word Format
FWI,French West Indies
FWIW,For What It's Worth
FWS,U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
FWT,Fresh Water Tank
FX,Firefox,Fox Extended,Metropolitan France (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1997),Special effect
FXX,Metropolitan France (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1997)
FY,Fiscal Year,Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (NATO country code)
FYA,For Your Agenda
FYDP,Five-Year Defense Plan (U.S.)
FYI,For Your Information
FYROM,Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
FZDZ,Freezing Drizzle (METAR Code)
FZFG,Freezing Fog (METAR Code)
FZRA,Freezing Rain (METAR Code)
G,Gauss,General Audiences (movie rating)
g,Gram
G1,Assistant Chief-of-Staff,Personnel
G10,Group of 10 (G7 + Belgium,Netherlands,Sweden,Switzerland; numbering 11 in fact)
G15,Group of 15 (subset of G77,formed 1989: Algeria,Argentina,Brazil,Chile,Egypt,India,Indonesia,Jamaica,Kenya,Nigeria,Malaysia,Mexico,Peru,Senegal,Sri Lanka,Venezuela and Zimbabwe; currently numbers 17)
G2,Assistant Chief-of-Staff,Intelligence
G20,Group of 20 (G8 + Argentina,Australia,Brazil,China,India,Indonesia,Mexico,Saudi Arabia,South Africa,South Korea,Turkey + current European Union presiding country) (1999)
G24,Group of 24 (subset of G77,formed 1971: Algeria,Argentina,Brazil,Colombia,Côte d'Ivoire,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Egypt,Ethiopia,Gabon,Ghana,Guatemala,India,Iran,Lebanon,Mexico,Nigeria,Pakistan,Peru,Philippines,South Africa,Syria,Sri Lanka,Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela)
GJ,Gigajoule,Grenada (FIPS 10-4 country code),Gujarat (Indian state code)
GJD,Geocentric Julian Day
GK,Gigakelvin,Guernsey (FIPS 10-4 territory code)
GL,Gigalitre,Graphics Language,Greenland (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 territory code),Grenade Launcher
GLAAD,Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
GLAC,General Ledger Accounting Code
GLAST,Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
GLBA,Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
GLC,Gas-liquid chromatography
GLINT,Gallium-arsenide Laser Illuminator for Night TV,Gated Laser Illuminator for Narrow Television,Gated Laser Intensifier (tape),Gospel Literature International,Graphical Linux Installation Tool
GM,"The Gambia (ISO 3166 digram),GameMaster (role-playing),General Motors,Genetically Modified,Germany (FIPS 10-4 country code),Guru Meditation (computing)"
GMAC,"General Motors Acceptance Corporation,the original name of the company now known as Ally Financial,Graduate Management Admission Council,G-MAC,Great Midwest Athletic Conference"
GMB,"The Gambia (ISO 3166 trigram),General,Municipal,Boilermakers (and Allied Trade Union)"
GQ,"Equatorial Guinea (ISO 3166 digram),Gentlemen's Quarterly (the original name of the magazine now known simply as GQ),Guam (FIPS 10-4 territory code),GR[edit]"
GR,"Greece (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Hail (METAR Code)"
GRU,Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije/Главное Разведывательное Управление (Russian,"Main Intelligence Directorate" [of the former Soviet and now Russian armed forces])
GS,General Schedule (US civil service pay scale),General Support,Gigasiemens,South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (ISO 3166 digram)
Gs,Gigasecond
GSA,U.S. General Services Administration
GSD,Graphical Situation Display
GSG,German Sport Guns,Global Scenario Group (former environmental research organization),Grenzschutzgruppe (German,"Border Guard Group" — Germany's GSG 9 counterterrorist unit was originally a special branch of the border police)
GSGB,(God send glamour boy 9-10/10)
GSK,GlaxoSmithKline [good sexual karma]
GSM,General Service Medal,Grams per Square Metre (paper thickness; properly g/m2),Ground Station Module,Groupe spécial mobile (French,"Special Mobile Group"; official expansion is now Global System for Mobile Communications)
GSO,General Services Officer (U.S. Department of State)
GSOH,Good Sense Of Humour
GSP,Georges St-Pierre (Canadian MMA fighter)
GSR,Gun Shot Residue
GSS,Generic Security Services
GST,Goods and Services Tax (Australia,Canada,and other countries)
GSW,Gunshot wound
GT,Gigatesla,Gran Turismo,Grand Touring,Guatemala (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
GTB,Get to bed,namely to get a new job after a long time of searching,usually following a phone call
GTC,Gran Telescopio Canarias (Spanish,Canaries Great Telescope)
GTD,Getting Things Done
GTG,Got To Go (Internet chat)
GTGN,Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
GTK,Good To Know (Internet chat)
GTM,Guatemala (ISO 3166 trigram)
GU,Guam (postal symbol; ISO 3166 digram)
GUA,Guatemala (IOC and FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166)
GUF,French Guiana (ISO 3166 trigram)
GUI,Graphical user interface ("goo-ey")
GUILT,Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin
Gulag,Glavnoye Upravleniye ispravitelno-trudovykh LAGerei i kolonii (Russian Главное Управление Исправительно—Трудовых Лагерей и колоний,"Main Directorate of Corrective Labour Camps")
GULCR,Grupo de Usuarios de Linux de Costa Rica
GUM,Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin (Russian Главный Универсальный Магазин,"Main Department Store"; known in Soviet times as Gosudarstvennyi Universalnyi Magazin/Государственный Универсальный Магазин,"State Department Store"),Guam (ISO 3166 trigram),Guide to the expression of Uncertainty in Measurement
GUT,Grand Unification Theory
GV,Gigavolt,Guinea (FIPS 10-4 country code)
GW,Games Workshop,Germ Warfare,Gigawatt,Guided Weapon,Guinea-Bissau (ISO 3166 digram)
GWARS,Ground Warfare System (simulation)
GWAS,Grand Western Archery Society
GWOT,Global War on Terrorism
GWS,Gulf War Syndrome,Greater Western Sydney
GXE,Gene-enivronment interaction
GXM,Matrox Graphics eXpansion Module
GxP,Good X Practice (X can mean: clinical,manufacturing,pharmaceutical,etc.)
GXP,Grid Exit Point,Global Xchange Programme,Indication of highest performance level on some Pontiac vehicles
GY,Guyana (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
GZ,Gaza Strip (FIPS 10-4 territory code),Ground Zero
GZK,Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off (cosmic ray energies)
h,Hecto
H,Henry,Hydrogen
HA,Haiti (FIPS 10-4 country code),High Availability
HAARP,High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
HAART,Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy
HAI,Human Awareness Institute
HAL,Hardware Abstraction Layer
HALO,High Altitude Low Opening (parachute jump)
HALT,Highly Accelerated Life Test,Hungry Angry Lonely Tired
HAM,Amateur radio operator
HANS,Head And Neck Support (device used in many race cars)
HDR,Henningson,Durham & Richardson (founders of the engineering and construction firm now known by their initials),High dynamic range,a term used in both digital imaging and 3D rendering,Hot Dry Rock (experimental geothermal technology),Human Development Report (UN publication)
HOMES,the Great Lakes; Huron,Ontario,Michigan,Erie,Superior
HONY,Humans of New York,a photoblog.
HOPI,Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (see Internet2,Abilene Network)
HoReCa,Hotel,Restaurant and Catering
HORIZON,Hélicoptère d'observation radar et d'investigation sur zone (French,Zone Investigation and Radar Observation Helicopter)
HOSTAC,Helicopter Operations from Ships Other Than Aircraft Carriers
HOT,Highly Optimised Tolerance
HOTAS,Hands on throttle-and-stick
HOV,High Occupancy Vehicle
HP,Hewlett-Packard,Hindustan Petroleum,Himachal Pradesh (Indian state code)
hp,horse power
HPA,UK Health Protection Agency
HPCL,Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
HPLC,High Performance Liquid Chromatography
HPT,High[er] Payoff Target
HPV,Human Papilloma Virus
HQ,HeadQuarters,Howland Island (FIPS 10-4 territory code)
HQDA,HeadQuarters,Department of the Army
HR,Croatia (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram,from the country's native name of Hrvatska),Haryana (Indian state code),Harvard Revised star catalogue,Human Resources
HRBL,High-level Representation of Behavior Language (original name of the Herbal language)
HRD,Human Resource Development
HRED,(U.S. Army Research Laboratory's) Human Research and Engineering Directorate (Aberdeen Proving Ground,Maryland)
HRF,High iness Forces
HRH,His (or Her) Royal Highness
HRM,His (or Her) Royal Majesty
HRM,Human Resource Management
HRT,Hormone Replacement Therapy
HRV,Croatia (ISO 3166 trigram),High Resolution Visible,HS[edit]
Hs,Hassium
HSBC,The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
HSC,Higher School Certificate
HSM,High School Musical
HSMAD,Human Science/Modeling and Analysis Data
HSN,Home Shopping Network
HSPH,Harvard School of Public Health
HSS,Health Service Support,High-Speed Steel
HSSI,High-Speed Serial Interface
HST,see entry
HSV,Herpes Simplex Virus,Hue Saturation Value (colour model),HT[edit]
HT,Haiti (ISO 3166 digram),High Temperature,hoc tempore (Latin,"at this time"),hoc titulo (Latin,"under this title")
HTA,HyperText Application
HTC-High Tech Computer Corporation,original name of the company now known simply as HTC,Horry Telephone Cooperative
HTFU,Harden The Fuck Up
HTH,Hope That Helps
HTI,Haiti (ISO 3166 trigram)
HTML,HyperText Markup Language
HTR,Heated Towel Rail
HTS,High-Temperature Superconducting wire
HTTP,HyperText Transfer Protocol
HU,Hungary (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 country code)
HUD,Head-Up Display,Housing and Urban Development
HUHA,Head up his/her ass (Marine salute; probably a backcronym)
HUN,Hungary (ISO 3166 trigram)
HURD,Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons (cf. Hird)
HV,Upper Volta (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1984)
HVAC,Heating,ventilation and air conditioning Used in architecture,business and marketing; refers to a building's entire system of heating,moving,or cooling air.
ICZN,International Code of Zoological Nomenclature,International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
ID,Idaho (postal symbol),Identity,Indonesia (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Infantry Division,Intelligent Design,ID10T Error,Idiot User Error (IT help desk inside joke)
IDA,U.S. Institute for Defense Analyses,International Development Association (part of the World Bank
IDC,International Data Corporation
IDDI,I don't do initialisms (see irony)
IDE,Integrated Development Environment,Integrated Drive Electronics
IDeA,Improvement and Development Agency,the former name of Local Government Improvement and Development in the United Kingdom
IDEA,Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (U.S.),International Data Encryption Algorithm,International Design Excellence Awards
IDF,Israel Defense Forces,Intel Development Forum,International Dairy Federation
IDGAF,I don't give a fuck
IDK,I don't know
IDKIBTI,I don't know,I'm black,that's it
IDL,Interface Definition Language
IDN,Indonesia (ISO 3166 trigram)
IE,Indo-European languages,Internet Explorer,Ireland (ISO 3166 digram),Iced Earth
IEA,International Energy Agency
IEC,International Electrotechnical Commission
IED,Improvised Explosive Device
IEEE,Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ("I triple-E")
IELTS,International English Language Testing System
IER,Information Exchange Requirement
IET,Initial Entry Training
IET,Institution of Engineering and Technology
IETF,Internet Engineering Task Force
IEW,Intelligence and Electronic Warfare
IFAB,International Football Association Board
IFAH,International Federation for Animal Health
IFAP,International Federation of Agricultural Producers
IFC,International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank),Independent Film Channel
IFF,Identification,Friend or Foe,Individually Fresh Frozen,International Flavors and Fragrances
IFFN,Identification,Friend,Foe,or Neutral
IFO,Identified Flying Object (see also UFO)
IFOR,UN Implementation Force,Institute for Operations Research,International Fellowship of Reconciliation
IFOV,Instantaneous Field of View
IFPI,International Federation of Phonographic Industries
IFRB,International Frequency Registration Board
IFV,Infantry Fighting Vehicle
IG,Inspector General
IGNOU,Indira Gandhi National Open University
IGS,International Ground Station
IGY,Israeli Gay Youth,International Geophysical Year
IHH,Idiopathic Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism
IHO,International Hydrographic Organization
IHOP,International House of Pancakes,the original name of this American restaurant chain ("EYE-hop")
IHR,Institute for Historical Review
IHSI,Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu (Jesuit Historical Institute)
II,Two (in Roman numerals)
IICA,Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture
IIE,Innovative Interstellar Explorer
III,Three (in Roman numerals)
IIRC,If I Recall/Remember Correctly
IISS,International Institute for Strategic Studies
IIT,Illinois Institute of Technology,Indian Institutes of Technology,Indiana Institute of Technology
IJN,Imperial Japanese Navy (World War II)
IJWP,Interim Joint Warfare Publication
IKEA,Ingvar Kamprad (the company's founder),Elmtaryd (the farm where he was born and raised),Agunnaryd (a village and parish near the farm)
IL,Illinois (postal symbol),Israel (ISO 3166 digram)
ILC,International Law Commission,International Linear Collider
ILDS,Improved Landmine Detection System
ILO,International Labour Organization
ILRI,International Livestock Research Institute
ILY,I Love You [pronounced ILL-LEE]
IM,Isle of Man (FIPS 10-4 territory code),Instant Message (internet speech)
IMA,Intermediate Maintenance Activity,Institute of Mathematics and Applications
IMBD,International Migratory Bird Day
IMDb,Internet Movie Database
IME,In My Experience
IMF,id music file/id's music format (audio file format),Impossible Missions Force,the protagonist organization in the Mission: Impossible media franchise,International Monetary Fund (the most common use for the initialism)
IMHO,"In My Humble/Honest Opinion"
IML,International Mister Leather
IMLAST,International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology,see MILSET
IMNM,,Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy a rare,but serious ADR of statins [1]
IMPACT,International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce
IMPATT,IMPact Avalanche Transit Time diode
IMPT,Institute of Maxillofacial Prosthetists and Technologists
IMR,Inzhenernaya Mashina Razgrazhdeniya (Russian Инженерные Машины Разграждения,"Engineer Vehicle Obstacle-Clearing") †
IMRI,Industrial Membrane Research Institute,Information Management Research Institute,Institut pour le management de la recherche et de l'innovation (French,"Institute for the Management of Research and Innovation"),International Market Research Information,Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
IMRL,Individual Material iness List
IMRO-Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization,Irish Music Rights Organisation
INRIA,Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique
INS,Immigration and Naturalization Service
InSAR,Interferometric synthetic aperture radar
INST,Information Standards and Technology
INTERFET,International Force for East Timor
INTSUM,Intelligence Summary
IO,British Indian Ocean Territory (ISO 3166 digram; FIPS 10-4 territory code)
IOC,Initial Operational Capability,Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission,International Olympic Committee,International Ornithological Congress
IOLTA,Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (charitable funding mechanism,especially for legal aid)
IOM,Iowa,Ohio,Michigan (soybean origin),Institute of Medicine,International Organisation for Migration,Isle of Man
IONA,Islands of the North Atlantic (alternate name for Great Britain,Ireland,the Isle of Man,and related islands)
IOT,British Indian Ocean Territory (ISO 3166 trigram)
IOU,"I Owe You" (Promissory note)
IP,Clipperton Island (FIPS 10-4 territory code),Initial Point,Intellectual Property,Internet Protocol
IPA,India Pale Ale,International Phonetic Alphabet,Isopropyl alcohol
IPB,Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield
IPCC,Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,Independent Police Complaints Commission
IPL,Inferior Parietal Lobule
IPN,Instytut Pamieci Narodowej (Polish,"Institute for National Memory")
IPO,Initial Public Offering
IPR,In Progress Review,Intellectual Property Rights,Intelligence Production Requirement
IPT,Integrated Product/Project Team
IPTS,Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
IPTV,Internet Protocol TeleVision
IPW,Interrogation of Prisoners of War
iq,idem quod (Latin,"the same as")
IQ,Intelligence Quotient,Iraq (ISO 3166 digram)
Ir,Iridium
IRA,Individual Retirement Account,Irish Republican Army (see also List of organisations known as the Irish Republican Army for groups claiming descent from this organisation)
IRAD,Internal Research and Development
IRAN,(I) Inspect and Repair As Necessary
IRAS,Infrared Astronomical Satellite
IRB,International Rugby Board
IRBM,Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile
IRC,International Red Cross,International Reply Coupon
IREA,Intermountain Rural Electric Association
IRINN,Islamic Republic of Iran News Network
IRL,"Ireland (ISO 3166 trigram),Industrial Research Limited,Indy Racing League,In real life"
ISCII,Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange
ISDN,Integrated Services Digital Network
ISEF,Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
ISEN,Internet Search Environment Number
ISF,Internal Security Force
ISI-Indian Standards Institute,former name of the Bureau of Indian Standards,Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan),Islamic State of Iraq,an umbrella organization for several Iraqi insurgent groups
ISIL,Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
ISIS,"Institute for Science and International Security, or: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"
ISL,Iceland (ISO 3166 trigram)
ISLN,International Standard Lawyer Number (used initially by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell)
ISM,Industrial,scientific or medical,Interstellar medium
J8,Joint Force Structure,Resources,& Assessment Directorate
JA,Japan (FIPS 10-4 country code)
JAFT,Just A Field Test
JAL,Japan Airlines
JALLC,Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (NATO)
JAM,Jamaica (ISO 3166 trigram)
JAMA,Journal of the American Medical Association
JANET,Joint Academic Network
JANUS,Joint Academic Network Using Satellites (UK),Joint Army Navy Uniform Simulation,Joint Army-Navy Staff,Just ANother Useless Simulation (Note: The U.S. Army Janus simulation is not an acronym)
JATO,Jet-Assisted Take-Off
JB,Jail Bait
JB,Junior Branch
JBFSA,Joint Blue Force Situational Awareness
JCATS,Joint Conflict And Tactical Simulation ("djay-catts")
JCDB,Joint Common Data Base
JCDS,Joint Chiefs of the Defence Staff
JCIDS,Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System
JCL,Job Control Language
JCP,Java Community Process
JCPM,Java Child Process Manager,Jesus Christ Prison Ministry
JCS,Joint Chiefs of Staff
JCW,Juggalo Championship Wrestling
JD,Jack Daniel's (whiskey),Julian day,Juris Doctor (Latin,"doctor of jurisprudence")
JDBC,Java Data Base Connectivity
JDCC,UK Joint Doctrine and Concepts Centre,now the Development,Concepts,and Doctrine Centre,DCDC
JDEM,Joint Dark Energy Mission
JDL,Jewish Defense League
JDM,Japanese domestic market,referring specifically to automobiles and parts,Java Data Mining,Joint design manufacturing,JE[edit]
JE,Jersey (FIPS 10-4 territory code)
JEB,James Ewell Brown (Stuart),John Ellis Bush
JEDP,Jahwist,Elohist,Deuteronomist,Priestly (according to the documentary hypothesis,the sources of the Torah)
KBE,Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
KBO,Kuiper Belt Object
KBVB,Koninklijke Belgische Voetbalbond (Dutch for Royal Belgian Football Association)
kC,Kilocoulomb
KCK,Kansas City,Kansas,Koma Civakên Kurdistan (Kurdish,"Union of Communities in Kurdistan")
KCL,King's College London
KCMO,Kansas City,Missouri (pronounced "K-C-Moe")
KCS,Kansas City Southern Railway (AAR reporting mark)
KD,Kawasaki Disease,Kraft Dinner
KE,Kenya (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Kinetic Energy,Knowledge Engineering
KEDO,Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
KEN,Kenya (ISO 3166 trigram)
KERA,Kentucky Education Reform Act (of 1990)
kerma,Kinetic Energy Released in MAterial / in MAtter / per unit MAss
KESR,Kent and East Sussex Railway.
KET,Kentucky Educational Television,Key English Test,KF[edit]
kF,Kilofarad
KFC,Kentucky Fried Chicken
KFOR,UN Kosovo Force
KFUPM,King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
KG,Kyrgyzstan (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
KGB,Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Russian "Committee for State Security") (1954-1991)
KGO,Knight of the Guelphic Order of Hanover
KGZ,Kyrgyzstan (ISO 3166 trigram)
KH,Cambodia (ISO 3166 digram)
kH,Kilohenry
KHL,Kontinental Hockey League
KHM,Cambodia (ISO 3166 trigram)
KHz,Kilohertz
Ki,Kibi
KI,Kiribati (ISO 3166 digram)
KIA,Killed In Action
KIDS,Knowledge-based Integrated Design System
KIR,Kiribati (ISO 3166 trigram)
KISS,Keep It Simple,Stupid / Keep It Short and Simple,Korean Intelligence Support System
KIT,Keep In Touch
KITECH,Korean Institute of Industrial Technology
KITT,Knight Industries Two Thousand,Knight Industries Three Thousand
kJ,Kilojoule
KK,Kabushiki kaisha (Japanese for "Stock Company",found in the legal names of countless Japanese corporations),Košarkarski klub (Slovenian),Košarkaški Klub (Croatian and Serbian in Latin script),Кошаркашки клуб (Serbian Cyrillic),Krepšinio Klubas (Lithuanian); all mean "Basketball Club",as in KK Union Olimpija,KK Cibona,KK Partizan,and KK Atletas
kK,Kilokelvin
KKK,Ku Klux Klan
kL,Kilolitre
KL,Kuala Lumpur,Kerala (Indian state code)
KLENOT,KLEť Observatory Near Earth and Other unusual objects observations Team and Telescope
KLS,Kleine-Levin syndrome,Košarkaška liga Srbije (Latin) or Кошаркашка лига Србије (Cyrillic) (Serbian,"Basketball League of Serbia"),Kuala Lumpur Sentral,KM[edit]
KM,Comoros,Knowledge Management
KMFDM,Kein mitleid für die mehrheit (German "No pity for the majority" music band)
KMR,Kwajalein Missile Range
KN,Democratic People's Republic of Korea (FIPS 10-4 country code),Saint Kitts and Nevis (ISO 3166 digram)
kN,Kilonewton
KNA,Saint Kitts and Nevis (ISO 3166 trigram)
KNVB,Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond (Dutch for Royal Dutch Football Association)
LDS,Latter-day Saint (also "Latter Day Saint"); also used as an abbreviation by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
LJ,La Jolla,Larry Johnson (both the American football and basketball players of that name),LaserJet (HP printer brand),Library Journal,Linux Journal,LiveJournal,Ljubljana,Lord Justice of Appeal,Sierra National Airlines (IATA code)
LJJ,Lord Justices of Appeal
LK,Sri Lanka (ISO 3166 digram)
LKA,Sri Lanka (ISO 3166 trigram)
LKL,Lietuvos krepšinio lyga (Lithuanian,"Lithuanian Basketball League")
LKR4,Linkwitz-Riley 4th order (audio crossover type)
LL,Land Line (telephone),Last Log,Late Latin,Left Limit,Lex Luthor (Superman character),Light Line,Limited Liability,Linked List,Little League
LLAD,Low Level Air Defence
LLB,Legum Baccalaureus (Latin: Bachelor of Laws)
LLC,Limited Liability Company
LLGC,Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (National Library of Wales),London Lesbian and Gay Centre
LLLTV,Low-Light Level Television
LLNL,Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LLP,Limited Liability Partnership
LLTI,Limiting Long-Term Illness,Long Lead Time Item
LMS,London Mathematical Society,London,Midland and Scottish (Railway)
LMV,() Light Motor Vehicle
LNB,Liga Nacional de Básquet (Rioplatense Spanish,"National Basketball League"; top Argentine league),Ligue Nationale de Basketball (French,"National Basketball League"; the organization that operates France's top two leagues,and the unrelated top league of Switzerland),Low-Noise Block (Satellite dish)
LNER,London and North Eastern Railway
LNG,Liquefied Natural Gas
LNO,Liaison Officer
LNR,Ligue Nationale de Rugby (French,"National Rugby League")
MAPS,Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship
MAQS,Museum of the American Quilter's Society ("max")
MAR,Morocco (ISO 3166 trigram)
MarBEF,Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
MARC,MAchine able Cataloging (often also defined as MAchine able Code),Mailing list ARChive,Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition,Mid-America Regional Council
MARCENT,United States Marine Forces Central Command
MARFORCC,Marine Force Component Commander
MARRS,Martyn Young,Alex Ayuli,Rudy Tambala,Russell Smith,and Steve Young (British electronic music act)
MASAS,Monte Agliale Supernovae and Asteroid Survey
Maser,Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
MASH,Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
MASINT,Measurement And Signature Intelligence
MATREX,Modeling Architecture for Technology,Research & EXperimentation
MBE,Member of the Order of the British Empire,Multistate Bar Examination (U.S.)
MBI,Moody Bible Institute
MBIDST,Member of the British Institute of Dental and Surgical Technologists
MBM,Meat and Bone Meal
mbsf,metres below sea floor,[1][2] a depth convention used in paleontology and oceanography
MBT,Main Battle Tank
MBTA,Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority,Migratory Bird Treaty Act (U.S.)
MBTI,Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
mC,Millicoulomb
MCA,Master of Computer Applications,Micro Channel Architecture,MultiChannel Analyzer,Music Corporation of America,the original name of the now-defunct MCA Inc.
MCC,Marylebone Cricket Club,Mission Control Center,Motor Control Center,Movement Control Centre
MCD,Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction,Minor civil division (U.S. Census term)
MCDL,Model Composition Definition Language
MCFT,Modified Compression Field Theory
MCG,Melbourne Cricket Ground
MCI,Microwave Communications,Inc.
MCIS,Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
MCM,Mine Counter-Measures
MCMV,Mine Counter-Measure Vessel
MCNC,Microelectronics Center of North Carolina,Mixing Condensation Nucleus Counter
MCTIS,Mounted Co-operative Target Identification System
MCU,Marine Corps University,Marvel Cinematic Universe,Medium close-up (camera direction in British TV scripts),Microcontroller unit,Milk clotting units,Ming Chuan University,Minimum coded unit (digital imaging),Multipoint control unit,Municipal Credit Union (New York),MD[edit]
Md,Mendelevium
MDA,Main Defensive Action/Area,Moldova (ISO 3166 trigram),Muscular Dystrophy Association
MDF,Main distribution frame,Medium-density fiberboard
MDG,Madagascar (ISO 3166 trigram),UN Millennium Development Goal
MDM,Michigan Dartmouth MIT telescope consortium,Master data management
MDMA,MethyleneDioxy-MethylAmphetamine (also known as "Ecstasy")
MECCA,Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center and Arena,a former name for the sports venue now known as UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena
MECO,Main engine cutoff (NASA code for point in Space Shuttle assent when three main engines are shut down prior to External Tank (ET) separation)
MEDEVAC,Medical evacuation
MEDLI,Mars Science Laboratory Entry,Descent,and Landing Instrumentation,Medical & Scientific Libraries of Long Island,Model for Effluent Disposal using Land Irrigation
MEDS,Mission Essential Data Set
MEF,U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force,Minimum essential facility,Mission essential force
MEG,MagnetoEncephaloGraphy
MEI,Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd.
MEK,Magyar Elektronikus Konyvtar,Message encryption key,Methyl ethyl ketone,Mujahideen al-Khalq
MEP,Mechanical Electrical Plumbing,Member of the European Parliament,Missions étrangères de Paris (French for "Paris Foreign Missions"),Model European Parliament
MILSET,Mouvement International pour le Loisir Scientifique Et Technique (French,"International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology")
MIMAROPA,Mindoro,Marinduque,Romblon,Palawan (a region in the Philippines)
MIMOSA,MIcroMeasurements Of Satellite Acceleration
MIMPT,Member of the Institute of Maxillofacial Prosthetists and Technologists
MKO,Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (Persian,"People's Mujahedin of Iran")
MKS,Metre-Kilogram-Second (system of units),MKS Inc. software company
MKSA,Metre-Kilogram-Second-Ampere (system of units)
ML,Mali (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Maximum Likelihood,Megalitre
mL,Millilitre
MLA,Martial Law Administration of Bangladesh,Master of Landscape Architecture,Medical Library Association,Member of Legislative Assembly,Modern Language Association,Mutual legal assistance treaty,Myelosis Leucemica Acuta
MLB,Major League Baseball
MLC,Member of the Legislative Council (in India)
MLE,Maximum likelihood estimation
MLHW,Mean Lower High Water (nautical charts)
MLI,Mali (ISO 3166 trigram)
MLK,Martin Luther King,Jr.
MLL,Major League Lacrosse
MLLW,Mean Lower Low Water (nautical charts)
MLP,My Little Pony
MLRS,Multiple-Launch Rocket System
MLS,Major League Soccer,Multiple Listing Service
MLSE,Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (owner of several Toronto-based sports teams),Maximum likelihood sequence estimation
MLSR,Missing,Lost or Stolen Report
MLT,Malta (ISO 3166 trigram)
MLVW,Medium Logistics Vehicle,Wheeled
MLW,Mean Low Water (nautical charts)
MLWN,Mean Low Water Neaps (nautical charts)
MLWS,Mean Low Water Springs (nautical charts)
Mm,Megametre
mm,Millimetre
MMA,Mixed martial arts,Moving Mechanical Assembly
MMC,Machinist's Mate,Chief (USN rating),Materiel Management Centre
MOSS,MObile Submarine Simulator,Moving Object Support System
MOT,Ministry of Transport (UK)
MOTA,Member of the Orthodontic Technicians Association
MOTESS,Moving Object and Transient Event Search System
MOTO,Mail Order / Telephone Order,Master of the obvious
MOU,Memorandum Of Understanding
MOVES,Modeling,Virtual Environments,and Simulation Institute
MOW,Maintenance of way (also MW)
MOZ,Mozambique (ISO 3166 trigram)
MPA,Maritime Patrol Aircraft,Master of Public Administration
MPa,Megapascal
mPa,Millipascal
MPAA,Motion Picture Association of America
MPC,Minor Planet Center,Minor Planet Circular
MPEC,Minor Planet Electronic Circular
MPEG,Motion Pictures (Coding) Experts Group
MPEV,Multi-Purpose Engineering Vehicle
MPF,Maritime Prepositioning Force
MPFC,Medial PreFrontal Cortex
MPG,Miles Per Gallon
MPMC,Medial PreMotor Cortex
MPSI,Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland
MPSoC,MultiProcessor System-on-Chip
MPSRON,Maritime Propositioning Ship Squadron
MQ,Martinique (ISO 3166 digram),Midway Islands (FIPS 10-4 territory code)
MR,Mauritania (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
MRAV,Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle
MRBM,Medium Range Ballistic Missile
MRC,Maintenance Requirements Card
MRD,Motorized Rifle Division
MRGO,Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal (also referred to as MR-GO or "Mr. Go")
MRGW,Medium-Range Guided Weapon
MRI,Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRL,Multiple Rocket Launcher
MRPharmS,Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (Great Britain)
MRR,Maximum Rock and Roll,Minimum-Risk Route,My Restaurant Rules
MRS,Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
MRSA,Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
MRT,Mass Rapid Transit — used as either an official or unofficial name for metro systems in Singapore,Kaoshiung,Bangkok,Taipei,Chennai,and Delhi,Mauritania (ISO 3166 trigram)
MRTFB,U.S. Major Range and Test Facility Base
MS,mano sinistra (Latin,"left hand"),manuscript,Master of Science,Megasiemens,Microsoft (sometimes M$),Mississippi (postal symbol),Montserrat (ISO 3166 digram),Multiple Sclerosis,M&S,Modelling & Simulation,Marks & Spencer
Ms,Megasecond
mS,Millisiemens
MSB,Main Support Battalion,Most Significant Bit (or Byte)
MSD,Minimum Safe Distance
MSDB,Multi Source Data Base
MSE,Multiple Subscriber Element
MSEC,Message Security Encryption Code ("emm-sec")
MSG,Message
MSG,MonoSodium Glutamate,Madison Square Garden (either the 1879,1890,1925,or current versions of the venue)
MSM,Mainstream media,Men who have sex with men,Mount St Mary's School
MSN,Microsoft Network,Master of Science in Nursing
MSNBC,Microsoft National Broadcasting Company Cable news channel (see also msnbc.com)
MSO,Multiple System Operator
MSPA,Migrant and Seasonal worker Protection Act,MS Paint Adventures
MSPB,Merit Systems Protection Board
MSR,Main Supply Route,Module Service Record,Montserrat (ISO 3166 trigram),Motor Schlepp Regulung,Mountain Safety Research (outdoor supplies manufacturer)
NCAA,National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NC double A")
NCAR,U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCB,National Codification Bureau
NCCAM,U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
NCCUSL,National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (U.S.)
NCDDR,U.S. National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research
NCES,U.S. National Center for Education Statistics,Net-Centric Enterprise Services
NCI,U.S. National Cancer Institute
NCIS,National Criminal Intelligence Service (British),Naval Criminal Investigative Service (U.S. Navy; see also NCIS,a U.S. TV series based on this unit)
NCL,New Caledonia (ISO 3166 trigram)
NCLR,National Council of La Raza
NCMO,No Commitment Make Out
NCND,Non Circumvention & Non Disclosure,Neither Confirm Nor Deny,New Concept New Design
NCO,Non-Commissioned Officer
NCP,Net Contracted Purchases
NCR,National Cash Register Co.
NCTR,Non-Co-operative Target Recognition
NCW,Network Centric Warfare
Nd,Neodymium
ND,Non-Disclosure,North Dakota (postal symbol)
NDAA,U.S. National Defense Authorization Act
NDBP,Non-Departmental Public Body (Scotland)
NDCC,New Directions Counseling Center (Concord,California)
NDH,Neue Deutsche Härte (German,"new German hardness"—heavy metal genre),Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Croatian,"Independent State of Croatia"—Nazi puppet state)
NDP,New Democratic Party (Canada)
NDS,Nintendo DS
NDU,National Defense University (Washington,DC)
NE,Nebraska (postal symbol),Niger (ISO 3166 digram),North-East
Ne,Neon
NEA,National Education Association (U.S. labor union),Near-Earth Asteroid,Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD)
NEAT-Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking,,National Emergency Access Target (Au Health)
NEC,Network-enabled capability,Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie (Dutch,"Nijmegen Unity Combination"; football club formed by the 1910 merger of the Nijmegen and Eendracht clubs),Nippon Electric Company,the original English-language name of the company now known as NEC,Northeast Conference (U.S. college sports)
NECTEC,National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Thailand)
NED,Netherlands (IOC and FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166)
NEI,National Eye Institute,Not Enough Information,Nuclear Energy Institute
NEMS,National Energy Modeling System (USDOE-EIA)
NEPA,National Environmental Policy Act
NER,Niger (ISO 3166 trigram)
NERICA,New Rice for Africa
NESDIS,National Environmental Satellite,Data and Information Service
NESP,NSA/CSS Enterprise Standards Program
NET,National Educational Television
NETCU,(UK) National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit
OBSS,Off Board Sensor Systems,Ordo Byantinus Sancti Sepulchri (Byzantine Order of the Holy Sepulchre),Orbiter Boom Sensor System (space shuttle),Origins Billion Star Survey
OBX,Outer Banks (North Carolina)
OC,Officer Commanding
OCA,Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur,Offensive Counter-Air
OCD,Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
OCFS,Oracle Cluster File System
OCFS2,Oracle Cluster File System Release 2
OCMCC,[2] Orchard County MCC
OCN,Oncology Certified Nurse
OCO,Oort Cloud Object
OCOKA,Observation,Cover and concealment,Obstacles,Key terrain,and Avenues of approach (mnemonic)
OCR,Optical Character Recognition
OCS,see entry
OD,Old Dragon,Ordnance Datum (nautical charts),Overdose
ODAS,OCA-DLR Asteroid Survey
ODB,Ol' Dirty Bastard (rapper),One Dirty B*tch/Broad/Babe (professional wrestler),Operational Data Base,Original David Baker (professional poker player; used to distinguish from another professional poker player of the same name),Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
ODBC,Open DataBase Connectivity
ODI,Office for Disability Issues (UK government agency),One Day International (cricket),Open Data-Link Interface,Oracle Data Integrator,Overseas Development Institute (UK think tank),OE[edit]
OEA,(U.S.) Office of Economic Adjustment
OECD,Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (international)
OED,Oxford English Dictionary
OEG,Operation Exposure Guidance
OEIS,On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
OEM,Original Equipment Manufacturer
OFA,Occipital Face Area
OFDA,U.S Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
OGC,Open Geospatial Consortium
OGD,Other Government Department
OGO,Other Government Organization
OGX,OUARGLA,a petroleum state in the south of Algeria
OH,Ohio (postal symbol)
OHC,OverHead-Cam engine
OHHLA,Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive
OHIP,Ontario Health Insurance Plan
OHMS,On Her (or His) Majesty's Service (also written: O.H.M.S.)
OHP,Observatoire de Haute-Provence
OHSS,Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome
OIC,Officer In Charge
OIE,World Organisation for Animal Health (originally the Office international des épizooties,French for "International Epizootic Office")
OIF,Operation Iraqi Freedom
OIOC,Oriental & India Office Collections (in the British Library)
OJ,Orange Juice,O.J. Simpson
OJT,On-the-Job Training
OK,Oklahoma (postal symbol),oll korrect (facetious alteration of "all correct",1839)
OKC,Oklahoma City
OLED,Organic Light-Emitting Diode
OLS,Operational Linescan System
OM,Oman (ISO 3166 digram),Olympique de Marseille (French football club)
OMA,Open Mobile Alliance,Operations & Maintenance,Army
OMB,U.S. Office of Management and Budget,Ontario Municipal Board,Order of Mapungubwe in Bronze
OMD,Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980s pop group)
OME,Osaka Mercantile Exchange
OMFG,Oh My Fucking God
OMG,Oh My God or Or My Gosh
OMGW,"Oh My Gosh it's Windy"
OMN,Oman (ISO 3166 trigram)
OMNCS,U.S. Office of the Manager for the National Communications System
OMP,Order of Mapungubwe in Platinum
OMS,Order of Mapungubwe in Silver
OMT,Object Model Template
OMW,On My Way,Oh My Word
ON,Ontario (postal symbol)
ONC,Orthopaedic Nurse Certified
ONCE,Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (Spanish,"National Organization for the Spanish Blind")
ONG,Orthodontic National Group
ONH,Óglaigh na hÉireann (Irish idiom for "soldiers of Ireland"),used for the following:
ONI,(U.S.) Office of Naval Intelligence
Onna,Oniong,Nnung Ndem,and Awa,a Local Government Area in Nigeria
OOS,Occupational Overuse Syndrome,OneSAF Objective System,Open Operating System,Out Of Service
OOTW,Operations Other Than War
OP,Observation Point/Post,Ocean Pacific (surfwear and swimwear brand),Original Poster (internet),Order Point,in inventory management; the inventory state at which more items should be ordered. Often expressed as a part of OP/OQ (when quantity OP is reached,order OQ new items),Overpowered,often used to refer to fictional characters (e.g. Superman) or game mechanics (e.g. the Black Lotus in Magic: the Gathering) that are considered disproportionately strong
OPA,Other Procurement,Army
OPAC,Online Public Access Catalogue
OPCON,Operational control
OPCW,Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
OPEC,Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
OPFOR,Opposing force
OPI,Office of Primary Interest,Open Prepress Interface
OPS,On-base plus slugging (baseball statistics),Operations
OPSEC,Operations security,Open Platform for Security
OPSI,Overwhelming post splenectomy infection,UK Office of Public Sector Information
OPTAR,Operational target
OPV,Offshore Patrol Vessel
OQ,Order Quantity,in inventory management; the quantity of new items to be ordered. Often expressed as a part of OP/OQ (when quantity OP is reached,order OQ new items)
OR,Operating Room (surgery),Operational/Operations Research,Oregon (postal symbol),overreciprocation,when the leader of an inner circle friendship contacts a friend more than is wanted or reasonable
ORD,Office of Research and Development,Operational Requirements Document
ORF,Operational iness Float
ORISE,Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
ORNL,Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ORR,Oak Ridge Reservation (U.S. DOE),Office of Rail Regulation (UK government),Office of Refugee Resettlement,(CIA) Office of Research and Reports,Operational iness Rate,Operational iness Review
ORSA,Oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus,Operations Research Society of America
OS,Operating System
Os,Osmium
OSA,Order of St. Augustine
OSCE,Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
OSD,U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense,On-screen Display
OSDL,Open Source Development Labs
OSE,Own Separate Entrance
OSERS,U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
OSETI,Optical SETI also Optical SETI
OSHA,Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSI,Office of Strategic Influence,Ontario Swine Improvement,Open Source Initiative,Open Systems Interconnection
OSIA,(U.S.) On-Site Inspection Agency
OSIRIS,Optical,Spectroscopic,and Infrared Remote Imaging System (astronomical system on the Rosetta spacecraft),Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (astronomical system on the land-based Gran Telescopio Canarias)
OSL,Open Source License,Optically Stimulated Luminescence,Orbiting Solar Laboratory
OSM,One Saturday Morning
OSOTPBOIAS,One Sec,On The Phone,Be Off In A Sec
OSPA,Operations Security Professional's Association site of OSPA
OSPA,Oregon School Psychologists Association [3]
OSRH,Oružane Snage Republike Hrvatske (en: Armed forces of the Republic of Croatia)
OSS,Office of Strategic Services (1942-1945,forerunner of CIA)
OSU,Ohio State University,Oklahoma State University
PADD,Personal Access Display Device (as seen in the Star Trek franchise),Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts,used for data collection in the U.S. petroleum industry
PADI,Professional Association of Diving Instructors
PAMELA,Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics,Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory
Pamida,Patrick,Michael,and David,sons of the department store chain's co-founder Jim Witherspoon
PAN,Panama (ISO 3166 trigram),Partai Amanat Nasional (Indonesian,"National Mandate Party"),Indonesian political party,Partido Acción Nacional (Spanish,"National Action Party"),political parties in El Salvador,Mexico,and Nicaragua,Partido de Avanzada Nacional (Spanish,"National Advancement Party"),Guatemalan political party,Personal Area Network,PolyAcryloNitrile,Programa de Asistencia Nutricional (Spanish,"Nutritional Assistance Program"),U.S. federal program for nutritional needs of poor families in Puerto Rico
PCPI,Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (AMA)
PCR,Polymerase chain reaction
PCSSD,Pulaski County Special School District
PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,Patent Cooperation Treaty
PCTE,Portable Common Tool Environment,Punjab College of Technical Education
PCZ,Panama Canal Zone (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1980)
Pd,Palladium
PD,per diem (Latin: (calculated) by the day),Point of Departure,Police Department,Postal District,Potential Difference,Principal Deputy,Public Domain,Privatdozent
PD,Product Director—Example: CERDEC Product Director C4ISR and Network Modernization
PDA,Personal Digital Assistant,Predicted Drift Angle,Public Display of Affection,Push-Down Automaton
PDD,Past Due Date,Presidential Decision Directive
PDF,Panama[nian] Defense Forces (abolished 1990),Portable Document Format,Principal Direction of Fire
PDG,President Director General,Product Development Group
PDL,Pure Dumb Luck (Texan punk band)
PDN,Pull-Down Network
PDP,Programmable Data Processor,Performance Development Plan
PDRY,People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (obsolete since 1990)
PDT,Pacific Daylight [Saving] Time (UTC-7 hours)
PDU,Police Dog Unit,Power Distribution Unit,Protocol Data Unit
PE,Ice Pellets (old style METAR Code),Peru (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram),Physical Education,Premature Ejaculation,Prince Edward Island (postal code),Price to Earning ratio (used for equity shares),Plant Extract
PE,Professional Engineer
PEBCAC,Problem Exists Between Chair and Computer (IT help desk in-joke)
PEBKAC,Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair (ditto)
PEEK,PolyEtherEtherKetone
PEET,Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy
PEGIDA,Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (German,"Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West")
PEI,Prince Edward Island,PolyEtherImide
PEK,PolyEtherKetone
PEO,Παγκύπρια Εργατική Ομοσπονδία (Greek for "Pancyprian Federation of Labour"),Philanthropic Educational Organization,PolyEthylene Oxide,Professional Employer Organization,Professional Engineers Ontario
PEPFAR,President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief
PER,Peru (ISO 3166 trigram)
perl,usually lower case Practical Extraction and Report Language
PES,PolyEtherSulfone
PEST,UK Public Engagement with Science and Technology
PET, Personal Electronic Transactor,Pierre Elliott Trudeau,Positron Emission Tomography (as in PET scan),PolyEthylene Terephthalate (plastic),Preliminary English Test
PETA, pentaerythritol triacrylate,People Eating Tasty Animals,People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
PF,French Polynesia (ISO 3166 digram),petafarad,Phenol Formaldehyde (resin),Power forward,a player position in Australian rules football,basketball,and ice hockey
pF,picofarad
PFD,Permanent Fund Dividend = personal flotation device
PFE,Permanent Forest Estate
PFIY,Please Fix it Yourself ("pee-fiy")
PFLAG,Parents,Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays ("pee-flag")
PFO,Pissed,Fell Over (medical diagnosis in-joke)
PfP,Partnership for Peace
PG -
Pg,petagram
pg,picogram
PGCE,Postgraduate Certificate in Education
PGD,Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
PGENI,Pharmaco-Genetics for Every Nation Initiative
PGH,Pre-implantation Genetic Haplotyping
PGM,Precision-Guided Munition
PGP,Pretty Good Privacy
pH,parts of hydrogen (acidity/alkalinity index),picohenry
PH,Passive Homing (missile guidance system),petahenry,Philippines (ISO 3166 digram),Probability of Hit,Public Health,Purple Heart
PHA,PolyHydroxyAlkanoate,Potentially Hazardous Asteroid
PIM, Parameterized Ionospheric Model,Path of Intended Motion,Pediatric Index of Mortality,Personal Information Manager/Management,Presence and Interworking Mobility,Processor-In-Memory,Program Integration Manager,Protocol Independent Multicast
PK,Pakistan (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram),petakelvin,Player Kill[er],Probability of Kill,PolyKetone,Pulemet Kalashnikova (Russian ПК пулемет Калашникова,"Machinegun Kalashnikov")[1]
PKA,Previously Known As,Professionally Known As
PKE,Partnership of Kindermusik Educators [1] &[2] & [2]
PLK,Polska Liga Koszykówki (Polish,"Polish Basketball League")
PLKK,Polska Liga Koszykówki Kobiet (Polish,"Polish Women's Basketball League")
PLL,Phase-Locked Loop (electronics)
PLM,Polarized Light Microscope/Microscopy
PLMBA,Phospholipid Bilayer Microarray
Pln,Platoon
PLO,Palestine Liberation Organization
PLOKTA,Press Lots Of Keys To Abort
PLP,Platonic Life Partner
PLS,Palletized Loading System,Personal Locator System
PLUTO,Pipe Line Under The Ocean
PLW,Palau (ISO 3166 trigram)
PM,Panama (FIPS 10-4 country code),Perry Mason,Phase Modulation,Post Meridiem (Latin "after noon"),Prime Minister,Project Manager,Saint Pierre and Miquelon (ISO 3166 digram)
PMT,Premenstrual Tension (UK) (see Premenstrual Syndrome)
PN,petanewton,Pitcairn Islands (ISO 3166 diagram)
pN,piconewton
PNAC,Project for the New American Century
PNC,Palestinian National Council,Palmerston North City (cf. PNC,a New Zealand rapper from this city),Pittsburgh National Corporation,one of the two companies that merged into today's PNC Financial Services,Provident National Corporation,the other company that merged into PNC Financial Services
PNG,Papua New Guinea (ISO 3166 trigram),Portable Network Graphics
PNH,Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria,Police Nationale d'Haïti (French,"National Police of Haiti"),PO[edit]
PNP,Partido Nuevo Progresista,Plug 'N' Play/Pray,Positive Negative Positive
PNVS,Pilot Night Vision Sensor
PO,Dust Devil (METAR Code),per os (Latin,"by mouth"),Portugal (FIPS 10-4 country code)
Po,Polonium
PO,Post Office
PO,Purchase Order
POCD,Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction
POD,Payable on Death (banking term,and the full name of American metal band P.O.D.),Point of divergence (alternate or counterfactual history),Port of Debarkation
pod,Plain Old Documentation
POE,Perl Object Environment,(b) Port Of Embarkation (c) Polyol Ester (d) Power Over Ethernet
POETS,Portable Occultation,Eclipse,and Transit electronic-camera System
POTS,Plain Old Telephone Service (cf. PANS),Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
POV,Point of view
POW,Prisoner of war
PP,Papua New Guinea (FIPS 10-4 country code),Passage Point,per procurationem (Latin,"by proxy")
pp-pages,especially in references,e.g. "A. U. Thor,Title,Journal X,Vol. 1,no. 2 (2010) pp. 13-42."
PPA,Parahippocampal Place Area,PolyPhthalAmide
PPASC,(U.S.) Plans and Program Analysis Support Center
PPASSCCATAG,"Proud Parents Against Singles,Seniors,Childless Couples And Teens And Gays",a fictional group formed by Marge Simpson
PPCLI,Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (regiment)
PPG,Pittsburgh Plate Glass (the original name of the company now known as PPG Industries),The Powerpuff Girls
PPL,Pakistan Petroleum Limited,Pay per lead (marketing),Pennsylvania Power and Light,former name of the U.S. utility company now known as PPL,Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Liechtensteins (German,"Scouts and Guides of Liechtenstein"),Phonographic Performance Limited (UK performing rights organisation)
PPP,Point-to-Point Protocol,Purchasing Power Parity
PPQ,Pulses Per Quarter (used in music programming,sequencers)
PPQN,Pulses Per Quarter Note (ditto)
PPQT,Pre-Production Qualification Test
PPS,post postscriptum,Precise/Precision Positioning Service (GPS),PolyPhenylene Sulfide
PPV,Pay-per-view
PQ,Province of Québec (obsolete postal code,replaced by QC),Parti Québécois,PR[edit]
Pr,Pastor or Priest
Pr,Praseodymium
PR,Public Relations,Puerto Rico (postal symbol; ISO 3166 digram)
Prb,Presbyter
PRBO,Point Reyes Bird Observatory
PRC,People's Republic of China
PRD,CERDEC Product Realization Directorate
PRFG,Partial Fog (METAR Code)
PRI,Puerto Rico (ISO 3166 trigram)
PRK,Democratic People's Republic of Korea (ISO 3166 trigram)
PRM,Personnel iness Management
PRN,pro re nata (Latin,"for the emergency","as needed")
PRT,Portugal (ISO 3166 trigram),Provincial Reconstruction Team
PRY,Paraguay (ISO 3166 trigram)
PS,Palestinian Territory,Occupied (ISO 3166 digram),Personnel Services,petasiemens,post scriptum (Latin,"written after"),Power Steering,Power Supply,Public School
Ps,petasecond
pS,picosiemens
PSA,Paralysis Society of America,Pharmaceutical Society of Australia,Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive,Production Services Association,Prostate Specific Antigen,Public Service Announcement,Public Service Association
PSC,Personal service corporation,Primary Somatosensory Cortex
PSE,Palestinian Territory,Occupied (ISO 3166 trigram)
PWC,PieceWise Constant (describing a mathematical function)
PwC,PricewaterhouseCoopers (international accounting firm)
PWL,PieceWise Linear (describing a mathematical function)
PWLC,PieceWise Linear and Concave/Convex (describing a mathematical function)
PWP,Plot,What Plot? / Porn Without Plot (denotes plotless,um,"feel-good" stories in online fiction,especially fanfic or erotic fiction)
PWR,Pressurized Water Reactor
PWV,Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging,the original name for the South African province now known as Gauteng,and still used to refer to the metropolitan agglomeration at the core of the province
PX,Post eXchange
PY,Paraguay (ISO 3166 digram),Person-Year,Portsmouth yardstick
PYF,French Polynesia (ISO 3166 trigram)
PYMWYMI,Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
PZ,Panama Canal Zone (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1980),Pickup Zone
Q1,First Quarter
Q2,Second Quarter
Q3,Third Quarter
Q4,Fourth Quarter
QA,Qatar (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
Qantas,Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services
RAP, Radio Access Point,Radiological Assistance Program (U.S. Department of Energy),Rear Area Protection,Recognised [Operating/Operational] Air Picture,Recurring Advance Payment,Relational Associative Processor,Reliable Acoustic Path,Rocket-Assisted Projectile,Rule Against Perpetuities
RARDE,UK Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (1962-1991)
RARE,Rapid Acquisition with Relaxation Enhancement (MRI technique)
RASC,Royal Army Service Corp,Former corps of British Army
RATELO,Radiotelephone Operator
Rb,Rubidium
RB,Running Back (football)
RBAR,Row By Agonizing Row,a derogatory way of describing a technique of scanning a set of records in a database to update or examine the contents of each one. This is the technique of last resort in most cases,since most database operations are optimized when using set based analysis instead of the RBAR method.
RDECOM,(U.S. Army) Research,Development and Engineering Command
RDM,Remotely Delivered/Deliverable Mine
RDO,Rapid,Decisive Operation,Regular Day Off,Remote Data Objects
RDS,Remote Desktop Services (Microsoft service),Réseau des sports (French,"Sports Network" — Canadian French-language TV channel),Respiratory distress syndrome,Royal Dublin Society (see also RDS Arena,a stadium on the grounds often called "the RDS")
RDT,Remote Digital Terminal
RDV,Remote Detection Vehicle
Re,Rhenium
RE,Royal Engineers
REACH,Registration,Evaluation,Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances
REACT,Remote Electronically Activated Control Technology
REAM,Retired Educators Association of Minnesota
RECCE,Reconnaissance
REEF,Reef Environmental Education Foundation
REM,"Rapid Eye Movement (sleep phase),Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum"
REME,Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
RERC,Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center
RES,Radiation Exposure Status,Reserve
RESNA,Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America
REU,Réunion (ISO 3166 trigram)
RF,Radio Frequency,Receptive Field (neurophysiology)
Rf,Rutherfordium
RFC,Request for Comments,Royal Flying Corps (WWI precursor to RAF)
RFD,Request for Documentation
RFE,Request for Evaluation
RFEF,Real Federación Española de Fútbol (Spanish for Royal Spanish Football Federation)
RFF,Right of First Refusal (legal term)
RFI,y For Inspection,y For Issue,Request For Information,Radio Frequency Interference
RFID,Radio Frequency IDentification
RFL,Rugby Football League
RFP,Request for Proposal
RFQ,Request for Quotation
RFT,Request for Tender
RFU,Rugby Football Union
RG,Republican Guard
Rg,Roentgenium
RGB,Red Green Blue (colour model)
RGBI,Red Green Blue Intensity (ditto)
Rh,Rhodium
RH,Southern Rhodesia (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1980)
RHIC,Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
RHLI,Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Canadian militia regiment)
RHO,Southern Rhodesia (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1980)
RHS,Right Hand Side,Redland High School,Royal Horticultural Society,London
RHU,Replacement Holding Unit
RHWR,Radar Homing and Warning Receiver ("raw" for short)
RI,Rex et Imperator,Regina et Imperatrix King-Emperor
RI,Rhode Island (postal symbol)
RIAA,Recording Industry Association of America
RIBA,Royal Institute of British Architects
RIF,Reduction In Force (layoffs),Resistance Index for Frostbite,ing Is Fundamental
RIFA,Red imported fire ant
RILA,Retail Industry Leaders Association
RIM,Remote integrated multiplexer,Australian term for a digital loop carrier,Research In Motion,former name of the BlackBerry company,Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (Maoist organization),Royal Indian Marine,former navy of British colonial India
RSVP,répondez s'il vous plaît (French for "respond if you please")
RT,Real Time,Radio Telephone,Return to duty
RTA,Road traffic accident (British)
RTBF,Radio-Télévision belge de la Communauté française
RTCA,RTCA,Inc.
RTF,Rich Text Format
RTFM, the Fucking/Fine Manual
RTG,Radio-isotope Thermoelectric Generator also used for Rubber Tyred Gantry crane
RTGS,Royal Thai General System of Transcription,Real Time Gross Settlement
RTI,Run-Time Infrastructure (Simulation)
RTL,see entry
RTLS,Return to Launch Site,period in NASA Space Shuttle assent profile where,during assent,shuttle aborts assent and turns and glides back to landing strip at launch site
RTP,Real-time Transport Protocol
RTS,see entry
RTT,Round Trip Timing
RTV,Rapid Terrain Visualization ACTD,Retro Television Network
RU,Russia (ISO 3166 digram)
Ru,Ruthenium
RUC,Royal Ulster Constabulary
RUS,Russia (ISO 3166 trigram)
RUSI,Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies
RVD,Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst (Dutch,"Government Information Service"),Rob Van Dam (American professional wrestler),RW[edit]
RW,Rwanda (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)
RWA,Rwanda (ISO 3166 trigram)
RWADA,Resident Weighted Average Daily Attendance (New York State term used in public education to indicate the size of a school district,i.e. its number of students)
RWH,Rain Water Harvesting
RWR,Radar Warning Receiver
RWS,Remote Weapon Station
Rx,Medical prescription (possibly from Latin "recipere","to take": see entry)
RX,Receive
SA,Sand (METAR Code),Saudi Arabia (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram),Sexaholics Anonymous,sine anno (Latin,“without year”),Situational awareness,South Africa,(i/s) South Australia (postal symbol),Standards Australia,Sturmabteilung (German,“Storm Detachment”,Nazi forerunner and rival of SS),S.A.,designation for a corporation in many European countries; see article for meanings
SAA,Saudi Arabian Airlines,former name of Saudia,Sex Addicts Anonymous,South African Airways,Southern Athletic Association,Standards Association of Australia,a former name of Standards Australia,SAAB — Svenska Aeroplan AB (Swedish aircraft manufacturer; also refers to its former auto manufacturing arm),SAAFR — Standard use Army Aircraft Flight Route (“safer”),SAAMI — Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (“sammy”),SAARC — South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,SAB — Soprano Alto Baritone,Sabena — Société anonyme belge d'exploitation de la navigation aérienne (French for “Belgian Company for Exploiting Aerial Navigation”,1923-2001),SABIC — Saudi Basic Industries Corporation,SABR — Society for American Baseball Research
SAC,Standards Activity Committee (of SISO),U.S. Strategic Air Command (1946-1992),SACAT — Semi Attended Customer Activated Terminal (Supermarket checkout),SACEUR — Supreme Allied Commander EURope,SACLANT — Supreme Allied Commander atLANTic,SACLOS — Semi-Automatic Command to Line of Sight
SAD,Seasonal Affective Disorder,Situational Awareness Display,SADD — originally Students Against Drunk Driving,now Students Against Destructive Decisions (U.S. national school-related group)
SADL,Situation Awareness Data Link (“saddle”),Structural Architecture Description Language
SAM,Sequential-Access Memory,Sociedad Aeronáutica de Medellín,Surface-to-Air Missile
Sambo,(p/a) Samooborona bez oruzhiya (Russian: "Самооборона без оружия",literally "self-defense without weapons")
SARA,Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy,Scientific Atlanta Resident Application,Scottish Amateur Rowing Association,Southern African Railway Association,State Administration for Religious Affairs,SARP — Search And Rescue Processor,SARR — (i/a) Search And Rescue Repeater,SARS — Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
SART,Search and Rescue Transponder,Situational Awareness Rating Technique,SARU — South African Rugby Union
SAS,Scandinavian Airlines System,Second Avenue Subway,Situational Awareness System,Special Air Service,Studies,Analysis and Simulation,Side Angle Side,Statistical Analysis System (original meaning; SAS Institute Inc. has evolved far beyond that scope),SASE — Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope,SASO — Stability and Support Operations,SASOL — Suid Afrikaanse Steenkool en Oli.e. (Afrikaans,“South African Coal and Oil”)
SAT,formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test; now known solely by the initials,Small Arms Trainer,SATB — Soprano Alto Tenor Bass,SATNAV — Satellite Navigation (Increasingly common GPS based system in new vehicles),SATs — Standard Assessment Tasks and other similar terms describing tests used in English schools; see National Curriculum assessment#Terminology,SAU — Saudi Arabia (ISO 3166 trigram),SAVAK — Sazamane Etelaat va Amniate Kechvar (Iranian “Security and Intelligence Service”)
SAW,Squad Automatic Weapon,Surface acoustic wave,SAWE — Society of Allied Weight Engineers,SB[edit],Sb — Antimony (Latin Stibium)
SB,Sexy Bitch,Sexy Bastard,Sexy Boy (disambiguation),Solomon Islands (ISO 3166 digram),Special Warfare Boat Operator
SBA,Santa Barbara Airport,Simulation-Based Acquisition,Sovereign Base Area,Student bar association,SBB — German for the Swiss Federal Railways
SBNO,Standing but not operating (in reference to amusement parks)
SBP,Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (Filipino,"Basketball Federation of the Philippines"),U.S. School Breakfast Program,Society of Business Practitioners,State Bank of Pakistan
SBS,Special Boat Service,Special Broadcasting Service,Seoul Broadcasting System
SC,Cruiser Submarine (US Navy hull classification) c Saint Kitts and Nevis (FIPS 10-4 country code; from Saint Christopher),Seychelles (ISO 3166 digram),South Carolina (postal symbol)
SCS,Scan Correlated Shift,Soil Conservation Service
SD,Secure Digital (memory card format),Sheriff's department,Smoke/Decontamination,South Dakota (postal symbol),Sudan (ISO 3166 digram)
SDHC,Secure Digital High Capacity
SDXC,Secure Digital eXtended Capacity
SE,Seychelles (FIPS 10-4 country code),Societas Europaea (form of business organization in the EU),South-east,Sweden (ISO 3166 digram),Synthetic Environment,System Engineering,SEAD — Suppression of Enemy Air Defence,SEADI — Senior Executioner of Approved Driving Instructors,SEAFDEC — Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center,SEAL — SEa-Air-Land,SEAT — Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish for "Spanish Touring Car Company"),SEATO — Southeast Asia Treaty Organization,SeaWiFS — Sea-Viewing Wide Field of View Sensor (satellite instrument)
SEM,Sensor Employment Manager,Switch to Email Mode,i.e. stop texting as it is more disruptive by making a sound or vibrating and email instead,for a given time
SEN,Senegal (ISO 3166 trigram),Small Extension Node
SEP,Somebody Else’s Problem,Spherical Error Probable,System Enhancement Package,System Engineering Plan,SEPTA — Southeastern Pennsylvania Rapid-Transit Authority,SERE — Survival,Evasion,Resistance and Escape,SESSPE — Submarine Escape and Surface Survival Personnel Equipment,SET — Staphylococcal EnteroToxin,SETI — Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,SETAC — Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
SEU,Single Event Upset (solid state physics),Slightly Enriched Uranium,Special Evidence Unit,SF[edit]
SF,Fleet Submarine (retired US Navy hull classification),San Francisco,Science fiction,South Africa (FIPS 10-4 country code),Speculative fiction,Special Forces
SFA,Sales force automation,Saturated fatty acid,Scottish Football Association,Stephen F. Austin (State University),Sudan Football Association
SG,Senegal (FIPS 10-4 country code),Singapore (ISO 3166 digram),Snow Grains (METAR Code),Study Group
SH,Saint Helena (ISO 3166 digram),SONATRACH (Algerian petroleum company)
SHAC,Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty,Student Health Action Coalition,SHAPE — Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe,SHF — Super High Frequency,SHN — Saint Helena (ISO 3166 trigram)
SI,Slovenia (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram),Socialist International,Sports Illustrated,Système International (French,International System of Units),SIA — Singapore Airlines (ICAO code),SIA — Survivors of Incest Anonymous,SIAM — Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics,SIC — Standard Industrial Classification,SICS — Swedish Institute of Computer Science,SIDS — Sudden infant death syndrome,SIDU — select,insert,delete,update. See Create,read,update and delete,SIF — Selective Identification Feature,SIFF — Successor IFF
SIG,Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (German,"Swiss Industry Company"). See also SIG Sauer,a firearms manufacturer spun off from the aforementioned company in 2000.,.signature (UNIX shell/Internet standard file name), Special Interest Group,SIGCAT — Special Interest Group for CD-ROM Applications and Technology,SIGINT — Signals Intelligence,SIGMET — Significant Meteorological Information
SIIT,Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (Canadian university),Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (Thai university),Stateless IP/ICMP Translation algorithm,SIMAC — Semantic Interaction with Music Audio Contents,SIMLAS — Soldier Integrated Multipurpose Laser System,SIMM — Single In-line Memory Module,SIMNET — SIMulator NETwork,later SIMulation NETwork,SIMNET-D,SIMNET-Developmental,SIMP — Strongly Interacting Massive Particle
Siri,Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface (Apple iOS software)
SISO,Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization,Society of Independent Show Organizers,SIW — Simulation Interoperability Workshop,SIYSS — Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar,SJ[edit]
SL,Sierra Leone (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram),Start Line
SLOC,Sea Lines Of Communication,Source Lines Of Code,SLORC — State Law and Order Restoration Council (of Burma)
SLP,Sea Level Pressure,Super Long Play,slph — Standard litre per hour (air flow),slpm — Standard litre per minute (air flow),slps — Standard litre per second (air flow),SLR — Single-Lens Reflex (camera)
SME,Scan Mirror Electronics,Subject Matter Expert
SMX-many,including: Server Macro Expansion,Solaris MINIX,Spatial multiplexing,Sulfamethoxazole; see entry
SNL,Saturday Night Live (television),Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano,SNM — Special Nuclear Material,SNMP — Simple Network Management Protocol,SNOBOL — StriNg Oriented symBOlic Language,SNP — Single-nucleotide polymorphism
SO,Shared Object (Unix),Sheriff's Office,Significant other,Somalia (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)
SOA,service-oriented architecture,Society of Actuaries,State of the art
SOAP,Simple Object Access Protocol,Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (U.S. medical residency matching)
SOB,Son Of a Bitch,Same Old Bullshit,SOC — Sector Operations Centre,SOCCSKSARGEN — South Cotabato,Cotabato,Sultan Kudarat,Sarangani,General Santos City (a region in the Philippines; pronounced “sock-sar-gen”),SOCOM — (U.S.) Special Operations Command
SoCon,Southern Conference (U.S. college sports)
SOD,School Of Dentistry,Statement Of Difference[s],Statement Of Direction,Statement Of Documentation,Statement Of Duty/Duties
SOE,Secret Of Evermore,Special Operations Executive (WWII British organization),State Of Emissions (EW)
SSA,Cargo Submarine (US Navy hull classification),Social Security Administration (U.S.),Statistics South Africa,SSB — Single-sideband modulation,SSB — Sacramento Sustainable Business,SSBN — Nuclear-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarine (US Navy hull classification)
SSC,Safe,Sane,Consensual (SM phrase),Secondary Somatosensory Cortex,Smaller-Scale Contingency,U.S. Army Soldiers System Center (Natick,Massachusetts),Superconducting Super Collider,SSCCATAGAPP — Singles,Seniors,Childless Couples,And Teens And Gays Against Parasitic Parents (fictional organization from The Simpsons)
SSD,Solid-state drive,South Sudan (ISO 3166 trigram),SSDC — U.S. Space and Strategic Defense Command
SSE,South South-East,Streaming SIMD Extensions,SSG — Guided Missile Submarine (retired US Navy hull classification),SSGN — Nuclear-Powered Guided Missile Submarine (US Navy hull classification),SSH — Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale,SSK — Hunter-Killer Submarine (retired US Navy hull classification),SSKP — Single-Shot Kill Probability,SSL — Secure Sockets Layer,SSM — Surface-to-Surface (Guided) Missile
SSN,Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarine (US Navy hull classification),SIM Serial Number,Social Security Number (U.S.),Socialist Solidarity Network,Subsystem number (SCCP,SS7),SSNW — Same Shit,New Wrapping,SSO — Submarine Oiler (retired US Navy hull classification),SSP — Submarine Transport (retired US Navy hull classification)
SSR,Radar Picket Submarine (retired US Navy hull classification),Solid State Recorder
SSRI,Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor,Social Systems Research Institute
SSRN,Social Science Research Network,Nuclear-Powered Radar Picket Submarine (retired US Navy hull classification)
SSS,Siding Spring Survey,Side Side Side (an acronym for remembering congruent triangles),Sigue Sigue Sputnik (band),S/SSM — Surface-to-Subsurface Missile
ST,Saint Lucia (FIPS 10-4 country code),São Tomé and Príncipe (ISO 3166 digram)
STA,Scheduled Time of Arrival,Surveillance and Target Acquisition,STAG — (U.S.) Strategy and Tactics Group,STAGE — Scenario Toolkit And Generation Environment,STANAG — (NATO) Standardisation Agreement
STAR,Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (NASA),Simulation of Tactical Alternative Responses,Special Threat Analysis and Recognition
STAT,Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (cell biology),Special Tertiary Admissions Test (Australia)
STB,Surface Transportation Board[2]
STFU,Southern Tenant Farmers Union,Stuff You[citation needed],STH — Sonic The Hedgehog
STI,Sexually Transmitted Infection,Subaru Tecnica International,STK — Satellite Tool Kit,STM — Short Term Memory,STOL — Short Take-Off and Landing,STOVL — Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing
STP,São Tomé and Príncipe (ISO 3166 trigram),Standard Temperature and Pressure,STR — Short Tandem Repeat (DNA analysis),STRATCOM — United States Strategic Command
SU,Soviet Union (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1992),Sudan (FIPS 10-4 country code),SUB — Student Union Building,SuD — Subject under Discussion,SUDC — Swedish United Dawah Center,a salafist Islamic organisation in Sweden
SV,El Salvador (ISO 3166 digram),Sportverein (German for “Sport Association”,as in Hamburger SV and SV Werder Bremen),SVC — Secondary Visual Cortex,SvD — Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish newspaper)
SWG,Surface Warfare Group,Symbology Working Group,SWHR — Society for Women's Health Research,SWIG — Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator,SWIR — Short Wave InfraRed (“ss-why-are” or “swhirr”)
SWLABR,She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow,Cream song (Bruce,Clapton and Baker),SWORD — Subjective WORkload Dominance,SWORDS — Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System,SWOT — Strengths,Weaknesses,Opportunities,Threats (mnemonic)
SWP,Special Working Party (“swipp”),Systematic Westing Plan (a plan of periodic westing of shares or mutual funds worth a fixed amount of money),Skill With Prizes (UK pub quiz machines — quality titles include: Pub Quiz,Quiz City,Frog in a Liquidizer,Who Wants To Win a Tenner?),SWT — Sea Water Tank,SWV — Sisters With Voices (American female R&B vocal group),SWZ — Swaziland (ISO 3166 trigram),SX[edit],SX — Sonic X
T,Tera,Tesla,Tritium
Ta,Tantalum
TA,Target Acquisition,Teaching Assistant,Tera-ampere,Territorial Army (UK),Tristan da Cunha (ISO 3166 digram)
TAA,Transparency Anti-Aliasing,Trans Australia Airlines
TAACOM,U.S. Theater Army Area Command
TAADCOORD,Theatre Army Air Defence Co-ordinator
TAAR,Trace Amine-Associated Receptor
TAC,U.S. Tactical Air Command (1946-1992)
TACAN,Tactical Air Navigation
TACC,Tactical Air Control Centre,(USAF) Tanker Airlift Control Center
TACCO,Tactical Coordinator
TACCSF,U.S. Theater Aerospace Command & Control Simulation Facility
TACDAR,Tactical Detection And Reporting
TACP,Tactical Air Control Party,Technology Applications Certification Program
TC,Teracoulomb,Turks and Caicos (ISO 3166 digram),United Arab Emirates (FIPS 10-4 country code; from Trucial Coast States)
TCA,Transformational Communications Architecture,Turks and Caicos (ISO 3166 trigram)
TCAA,Top Counter-Assault Agents
TCAS,Traffic Collision Avoidance System
TCCCS,"Tactical Command,Control and Communication System"
TCD,Chad (ISO 3166 trigram)
TCG,Trusted Computing Group,Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Gemisi
TCHD,Truck Cargo Heavy Duty
TCL,Tool Command Language
TCM,Turner Classic Movies
TCP,Traffic Control Point,Transmission Control Protocol,Trichlorophenol
TCU,Texas Christian University
TCW,Tasty Coma Wife
TCWMS,Tele-Center Workforce Management System
TD,Territorial Decoration,Toon Disney,Toronto-Dominion (Bank); see also its U.S. subsidiary,TD Bank,N.A.,Touchdown,Tower Defence A game type,involves defending waves of enemies using tower
TDA,The Disney Afternoon
TDL,Tactical Data Link
TDM,Time-Division Multiplexing
TDMA,Time Division Multiple Access
TDP,Technology Demonstration Programme
TDRS,Tracking Data and Relay Satellite
TE,Tactical Exploitation,Testosterone to Epitestosterone ratio,Tight end (American football; position generally not used in modern Canadian football)
Te,Tellurium
TEAL,Tasman Empire Airways Limited
Team,Together everyone achieves more
TEAMS,The East African Marine System (fiber optic cable)
TENCAP,Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities
TERS,Tactical Event Reporting System
TES,Tactical Event System
TEST,Thesaurus of Engineering and Scientific Terms
TEU,Twenty-foot equivalent unit (cargo capacity)
TeVeS,Tensor Vector Scalar theory
TF -
TFMPP,Trifluorophenylmethylpiperazine
TFR,Total Fertility Rate
TFT,Thin-Film Transistor
Tg,Teragram
TG,Togo (ISO 3166 digram)
TGA,Tonga (IOC and FIFA trigram,but not ISO 3166)
TGB,Tres grande bibliothèque (French,"Very Large Library"),a sarcastic nickname for the Bibliothèque nationale de France
TGIF,Thank God It's Friday,Toes Go In First
TGO,Togo (ISO 3166 trigram)
TGT,Target (also the ticker symbol for Target Corporation),Ticket Granting Ticket (computer security),Tyrese,Ginuwine,Tank,see TGT (group) for their collaboration
TGV,Tanjong Golden Village (Malaysian cinema chain),Tanora malaGasy Vonona (Malagasy,"Young Malagasies Determined",political party),Test Generation with Verification,Train à grande vitesse (French for "High-Speed Train"),TH[edit]
TH,Terahenry,Thailand (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)
TI,Tajikistan (FIPS 10-4 country code),Thermal Imaging,Threat Identification,Training Instructor,Texas Instruments
Ti,Tebi,Titanium
TIA,Total Information Awareness initiative
TIA,Transient Ischemic Attack
TIALD,Thermal Imaging and Airborne Laser Designation
TIBS,Tactical Information Broadcast System
TIC,Troops In Contact
TID,Target Identification,ter in die (Latin,"three times daily")
TIGERS,Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing System
TIM,Technical Information Memorandum,Technical Interchange Meeting,Toxic Industrial Material,Telecom Italia Mobile
TIMS,Tactical Internet Management System,The Institute of Management Sciences,The International Molinological Society,Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner,Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry,Travel Information Management Services,Tuberculosis Information Management System
TINC,There Is No Cabal
TINY,That Is,Not You (internet slang)
TIP,Thermal Identification Panel
tits,Toes in the Sand
TJ,Tajikistan (ISO 3166 digram),Terajoule
TJD,Truncated Julian Day
TJK,Tajikistan (ISO 3166 trigram)
TK,Terakelvin,Tokelau (ISO 3166 digram)
TKBL,Türkiye 1. Kadınlar Basketbol Ligi,the Turkish-language name of the Turkish Women's Basketball League
TKL,Tokelau (ISO 3166 trigram)
TKM,Turkmenistan (ISO 3166 trigram)
TL,Team Leader,Teralitre,Timor-Leste (ISO 3166 digram),ThermoLuminescence,TL;DR ,Too long; didn’t read.
Tl,Thallium
TLA,Three-Letter Abbreviation/Acronym
TLAM,Tomahawk Land Attack Missile
TLAR,That Looks About Right (chat shorthand),Transporter-Launcher And Radar
TLATOJL,The Life and Times of Juniper Lee
TLC,Tender Loving Care,The Learning Channel (now known strictly by the initials),Thin Layer Chromatography,T-Boz,Lefteye,Chilli,Tables,Ladders,and Chairs (type of professional wrestling match)
TLD,Thermoluminescent Dosimeter,Top-Level Domain
TLM,Traditional Latin Mass,Tridentine Latin Mass,Transaction Lifecycle Management
TLPM,T1 Line Performance Monitor
TLS,Timor-Leste (ISO 3166 trigram),Times Literary Supplement,TM[edit]
TM,Technical Manual,Theatre Missile,Thematic Mapper,trademark (often written in small superscript type: TM or ™),Turing machine,Turkmenistan (ISO 3166 digram) Tympanic Membrane
Tm,Terametre
TMA,Terminal Manoeuvring Area (restricted flying zone),Texas Medical Association,Tristeza y muerte de agave (Spanish,"wilting and death of agave"),a disease affecting the blue agave,from which the popular spirit tequila is produced
TNT,Thomas Nationwide Transport,an Australian company that was one of the predecessors to the former TNT N.V. and the current TNT Express,TriNitroToluene, Turner Network Television,TO[edit]
TOS,"Tape Operating System,Terms of service,The Original Series,used to distinguish the first Star Trek TV series from other parts of the media franchise,Tramiel Operating System"
TWIP,"Take What Insurance Pays,When a surgeon agrees to accept a lower payment than he ordinarily would for a procedure and not charge the patient the difference"
UPDM,Uganda People's Democratic Movement,Unified Modeling Language Profile for DoDAF and MoDAF,Unité de psychiatrie du développement mental,Universal Pattern Decomposition Method,Unix Power Device Management,Unpressurized Docking Mast,Urban Planning,Design and Management
USAP,Union Sportive des Arlequins Perpignanais,United States Antarctic Program
USAPATRIOT,Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
USAREUR,United States Army Europe
USB,Universal Serial Bus
USC,United States Code,University of South Carolina,University of Southern California
USCG,United States Coast Guard
USCINCSPACE,United States Commander in Chief,Space Command
USDA,United States Department of Agriculture
USDI,United States Department of the Interior
USDOE,United States Department of Energy
USDRE,(U.S.) Under-Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (1978-1986)
USEC,United States Enrichment Corporation
USFL,United States Football League
USFWS,United States Fish and Wildlife Service
USGS,United States Geological Survey
USIA,United States Information Agency
USJFCOM,United States Joint Forces Command
USL,United Soccer League,a third-level U.S. league. Not to be confused with an earlier league of the same name.,United Soccer Leagues,the organization that operates the above league,plus several other lower-level leagues,University of Southwestern Louisiana,a former name for the school now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
USMC,United States Marine Corps
USMNT,United States men's national (soccer) team
USN,United States Navy
USNA,United States National Arboretum,United States Naval Academy
USNB,United States Naval Base
USNG,United States National Grid
USNH,United States Naval Hospital
USNI,United States Naval Institute
USNO,U.S. Naval Observatory
USNOFS,United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station
USNP,United States Newspaper Program
USNR,United States Navy Reserve
USNS,United States Naval Ship
USNY,University of the State of New York (usually pronounced "use-knee")
USNZ,University Sport New Zealand
USPS,United States Postal Service
USPTO,United States Patent and Trademark Office
USR,Universal System Resources (/usr,directory in a *NIX filesystem),User
USS,United States ship (sometimes meaningless; see Star Trek)
USSPACECOM,United States Space Command
USSR,Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
UST,Underground Storage Tank
USTRANSCOM,United States Transportation Command
USWNT,United States women's national (soccer) team
UU,Unitarian Universalism,University of Utah,Unseen University
UUA,Unitarian Universalist Association
UUID,Universally Unique Identifier (see also GUID)
UUV,Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
UV,Burkina Faso (FIPS 10-4 country code; from Upper Volta),ultraviolet
UVM,Universal Verification Methodology,Universidad del Valle de México,University of Vermont,from its Latin name of Universitas Viridis Montis ("University of the Green Mountains"),UV mapping,UW[edit]
UW,University of Washington
UWO,University of Western Ontario
UWT,Under Water Telephone
UWTG,Under Water Tug
UWW,United World Wrestling
UXO,Unexploded Ordnance
UY,Uruguay (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)
UZ,Uzbekistan (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)
UZB,Uzbekistan (ISO 3166 trigram)
V,5 (in Roman numerals),Vanadium,Volt
VA,Vatican City-State (ISO 3166 digram),Veterans Affairs (U.S. Department of),Virginia (postal symbol),Various Artists
VACIS,Vehicle And Container Inspection System
VACIS,Victorian Ambulance Clinical Information System
VANOS,Variable Nockenwelle System
VAO,Vienna Art Orchestra
VAT,Value-Added Tax,Vatican City-State (ISO 3166 trigram)
VB,Victoria Bitter (beer),Visual Basic
VBA,Visual Basic for Applications
VC,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram),Victoria Cross
VCDS,(Canada) Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff,VAG-COM Diagnostic System
VCJCS,Vice Chairman,Joint Chiefs of Staff
vCJD,Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
VCNO,(U.S.) Vice Chief of Naval Operations
VCofS,Vice Chief of Staff
VCR,Video cassette recorder
VCT,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (ISO 3166 trigram)
VD,North Vietnam (ISO 3166 digram,obsolete 1977),Venereal Disease
VDFS,VisualSVN Distributed File System (VDFS)
VDMOS,(i/a) Vertical Double-diffused MOS transistor ("vee-dee-moss")
VDOT,(i/a) Virginia Department of Transportation ("vee-dot")
VDR,North Vietnam (ISO 3166 trigram,obsolete 1977)
VE,Venezuela (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
VEEGA,Venus Earth Earth Gravity Assist manœuvre
VEN,Venezuela (ISO 3166 trigram)
VERDI,Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Victor Emmanuel,King of Italy)
VERITAS,Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System
VFA,Victorian Football Association (historic Australian rules football league),Volatile Fatty Acid
VfD,s for deletion (used in Wikipedia)
VFL,Victorian Football League,the name of two distinct Australian rules football leagues:
VS,Very Special (brandy grade),vide supra (Latin,"see above")
VSAT,Very Small Aperture Terminal ("vee-satt")
VSHORAD,Very Short Range Air Defence
VSO,Voluntary Services Overseas
VSOP,Variations séculaires des orbites planétaires (French,"Planetary Orbit Secular Variations"),Very Small Outline Package (integrated circuit),Very Superior Old Pale (brandy grade),VLBI Space Observatory Programme
VSR,Very Special Relativity
VT,Vatican City-State (FIPS 10-4 country code),Vermont (postal symbol),Video tape,Virginia Tech
VTC,Video Tele-Conference
VTEC,Variable valve Timing and Electronic lift Control
WRVS,Women's Royal Voluntary Service,now only known by the acronym (UK)
WS,Samoa (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram; from the country's former name of Western Samoa),Writer to the Signet (a Scottish solicitor)
WSC,Weapon System Catalogue
WSDL,Web Services Description Language
WSJ,(The) Wall Street Journal
WSL,White Star Line (shipping company),Women's Super League,used to describe England's top women's association football league and top women's rugby union competition,Workers' Socialist League (UK political party)
WSM,Samoa (ISO 3166 trigram; from Western Samoa),Winchester Short Magnum (family of rifle cartridges)
WSROC,Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils
WSSM,Winchester Super Short Magnum (family of rifle cartridges)
WSTC,Women Signallers Territorial Corps (World WarII UK)
WSW,West South-West
WTB,Wales Tourism Board,Warenterminbörse Hannover
WTB,Want to Buy (a commonly used phrase in the online game "World of Warcraft")
WTC,World Trade Center
WTF,What the fuck?; also What a Terrible Failure (android)
WTFH,What The Fucking Hell
WTH,What the Hell
WTO,World Trade Organization
WTS,Want to Sell (a commonly used phrase in the online game "World of Warcraft")
WU,Wabash University,Washington University in St. Louis,Western Union,Windows Update,Work unit,WU Wien (German Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien,Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration)
WUBU2,What you been up to
WUU2,What you up to,Internet slang popular with teenagers.
WV,West Virginia (postal symbol)
WVA,World Veterinary Association
WVIAC,West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
WVR,Women's Volunteer Reserve (World WarII UK)
WVSC,Women's Volunteer Service Corps (World WarII Canada)
WVU,West Virginia University
WVUIT,West Virginia University Institute of Technology (note,however,that the initialism is almost never used; the popular name of the school is "WVU Tech")
WW,see entry
WWE,World Wrestling Entertainment
WWF,World Wide Fund for Nature,from its original name of World Wildlife Fund,which remains the legal name in the U.S. and Canada,World Wrestling Federation
WWI,World WarI
WWII,World WarII
WWIII,World WarIII
WWJD,"What would Jesus do?"
WWS,Wheaton Warrenville South High School
WWV,Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (catalog of the works of Richard Wagner,and callsign of NIST's shortwave radio station in Fort Collins,Colorado)
WWWF,World Wide Wrestling Federation
WXO,Weather [Executive] Officer
WY,Wyoming (postal symbol)
WYSIWYG,What You See Is What You Get (pronounced "wizzy-wig". See entry for derived acronyms)
WYSIWYP,What You See Is What You Print / What You See Is What You Pay ("wizzy-whip")
WZ,Swaziland (FIPS 10-4 country code)
XBML,eXtended Business Modelling Language
XC,Ninety (in Roman numerals)
XCBL,XML Common Business Library
XD,Used in chatrooms or email for smiley face. X is the eyes; squinted D is the mouth; XD.
Xe,Xenon
XF,Automobile made by Jaguar,Truck made by DAF Trucks,IATA code for Vladivostok Air
XFA,XML Forms Architecture
XFC,Xtreme Fighting Championships
XFD,Fighter aircraft made by Douglas
Xfe,X File Explorer
XFF,X-Forwarded-For
XFG,Exfoliation glaucoma
XFH,1932 rototype U.S. Navy fighter aircraft made by Hall,X-ray fluorescence holography
XFN,XHTML Friends Network,
XFR,Automobile made by Jaguar
XFT,X FreeType interface library
XG,Automobile made by Hyundai
XGA,Extended Graphics Array
XGE,Xoreax Grid Engine,Signal for "I Surrender"
XGP,Extreme Game Player
XHR,eXtra high Image resolution,XMLHTTPRequest
XHTML,eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language
XI,Eleven (in Roman numerals)
XII,Twelve (in Roman numerals)
XIII,Thirteen (in Roman numerals)
XIV,Fourteen (in Roman numerals)
XIX,Nineteen (in Roman numerals)
XJ,Automobile made by Jaguar,Automobile made by Jeep
XJL,Amphibian aircraft made by Columbia,Automobile made by Jaguar
XJS,Automobile made by Jaguar
XK,Automobile made by Jaguar,Automobile made by Jeep,Kell blood group precursor
XKB,X keyboard extension
XKE,Automobile made by Jaguar
XKR,Automobile made by Jaguar
XL,eXtra Large,Forty (in Roman numerals)
XML,eXtensible Markup Language
XMSF,eXtensible Modelling and Simulation Framework
XN,Christian,Nordic Patent Institute
XNA,"X-No-Archive,Xeno Nucleic Acid"
XNC,X Northern Captain
XNS,Xerox Network Systems,Extensible Name Service,Christians
XNU,X is Not Unix
XO,Χριστιανός Ορθόδοξος (Xristianos Orthodoksos,Greek for "Eastern Orthodoxy"),eXecutive Officer,eXtra Old (brandy grade)