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This guideline covers the use of abbreviations—including acronyms and initialisms, contractions, and other shortenings—in the English Wikipedia.
Maintaining a consistent abbreviation style allows Wikipedia to be read, written, edited, and navigated more easily by readers and editors. The style should always be consistent within a page. If a guideline conflicts with the correct usage of a proper name, ignore it. Abbreviations in quotations from written sources should always be written exactly as in the source, unless it is a Wikipedia-made translation.
Always consider whether it is better to write a word or phrase out in full, thus avoiding potential confusion for those not familiar with its abbreviation. Remember that Wikipedia does not have the same space constraints as paper.
Use sourceable abbreviations
editAvoid making up new abbreviations, especially acronyms. For example, "International Feline Federation" is good as a translation of Fédération Internationale Féline, but neither the anglicisation nor the reduction IFF is used by the organisation; use the original name and its official abbreviation, FIFe.
If it is necessary to abbreviate in small spaces (infoboxes, navboxes and tables), use widely recognised abbreviations. As an example, for New Zealand gross national product, use NZ and GNP, with a link if the term has not already been written out: NZ GNP; do not use the made-up initialism NZGNP).
Full points (periods)
edit
Modern style is to use a full point (period) after a shortening but no full points within an acronym or initialism. In the unusual case of an acronym containing full points between letters, it should also have a full point after the final letter. If an abbreviation ending in a full point ends a sentence, do not use an extra full point (e.g. They lived near Courtyard Sq., not They lived near Courtyard Sq..).
Contractions that contain an apostrophe (don't, shouldn't, she'd) never take a period, except at the end of a sentence. They are also not used in encyclopedia content except in quotations or titles of works, as noted below. Contractions that do not contain an apostrophe almost always take a period in North American English, but not in British English when the contraction ends with the same letter as the full term: Doctor can be abbreviated Dr. in American and Canadian English, but is Dr in British English. If the dot-less usage could be confusing in the context, use the point. Exceptions are symbols of units of measurement, which never use periods .
Expanded forms
editDo not apply initial capitals or other forms of emphasis to common-noun phrases just because capitals are used when abbreviating them:
- Incorrect (not a proper name): uses Digital Scanning (DS) technology
- Correct: uses digital scanning (DS) technology
- Correct (proper name): produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Similarly, when showing the source of an acronym, initialism, or syllabic abbreviation, emphasizing the letters in the expansion that make up the acronym is unnecessary and potentially distracting:
- Incorrect: FOREX (FOReign EXchange)
- Incorrect: FOREX (foreign exchange)
- Incorrect: FOREX (foreign exchange)
- Correct: FOREX (foreign exchange)
Acronyms
editAcronyms are abbreviations formed, usually, from the initial letters of words in a phrase.
Terminology
editAn initialism is an abbreviation formed from some or all of the initial letters of words in a phrase. An acronym is sometimes considered to be an initialism that is pronounced as a word (e.g. NATO), as distinct from an initialism pronounced as a string of individual letters (e.g. "UN" for United Nations). In this document the term acronym includes initialisms. The term word acronym can be used to refer to acronyms which are not initialisms.
Do not edit-war over these terms. When using more precise terms like word acronym and initialism, please link to Acronym § Nomenclature, where they are explained for readers.
Formation and usage
edit- Capitalisation: Some acronyms are written with all capital letters, some with a mixture of capitals and lower-case letters and some are written as common nouns (e.g., laser). Acronyms of letters that are pronounced individually (initialisms) are always written in capitals (e.g., FBI). ()
- Spacing: The letters of acronyms should not be spaced.
- Plurals: Plural acronyms are written with a lower-case s after the abbreviation, without an apostrophe, unless full points are used between the letters (e.g. ABCs or A.B.C.'s). Note that Wikipedia generally avoids using full point in upper-case acronyms.
- Emphasis: Do not apply special style, such as SMALL CAPS, to acronyms. Do not apply italics, boldfacing, underlining, or other highlighting to the letters in the expansion of an acronym that correspond to the letters in the acronym, as in BX (Base Exchange). It is not necessary to state that an acronym is an acronym. Our readers should not be browbeaten with the obvious.
If there is an article about the subject of an acronym (e.g. NATO), then other articles should use the same style (capitalisation and punctuation) as that main article. If no such article exists, then style should be resolved by considering consistent usage in source material.
Unless specified in the "Exceptions" section below, an acronym should be written out in full for the first time, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses, e.g. maximum transmission unit (MTU) if it is used again in the article. Common exceptions are post-nominal initials, because writing them out in full would cause clutter, or for something most commonly known by its acronym, in which case the expansion can be omitted (except in the lead of its own article) or be in parentheses—e.g. according to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).
To save space in small spaces (see § Use sourceable abbreviations), acronyms do not need to be written out in full. When not written out in full on the first use, an acronym should be linked. An unambiguous acronym can be linked as-is, but an ambiguous acronym should be linked to its expansion. Upon re-use in a long article, the template {{abbr}} can be used to provide a mouse-over tooltip, giving the meaning of the acronym again without having to redundantly link or spell it out again. The template inserts a <abbr> tag into the page's HTML. Example: {{abbr|CIA|Central Intelligence Agency}}, giving: CIA. (This mouse-over will not work on mobile devices, which represent the majority of Wikimedia traffic.[1])
For partial acronyms formed using the now-rare convention of including whole short words in them, do not blindly "normalise" them to typical current style, but write each as found in the majority of modern reliable sources. Examples: "Commander-in-Chief" is generally abbreviated CinC on its own, but may appear in all-caps when used in a longer acronym (especially a US government one) like CINCFLEET and CINCAIR. The Billiard Association of America was known as BA of A; while this should not be written as unsourceable variations like BAofA or BAA, the awkwardness of the abbreviation to modern eyes can be reduced by replacing the full-width spaces with thin-space characters: BA{{thinsp}}of{{thinsp}}A or BA of A gives BA of A, which better groups the letters into a unit.
Exceptions
editShip names
editShip name prefixes like HMS and USS should not be written out in full.
Time zones
editAbbreviations for time zones (e.g. GMT and UTC) should not be written out in full after times.
Countries and multinational unions
editFor these commonly-referred-to entities, the name does not need to be written out in full on first use, nor provided on first use in parentheses after the full name if written out.
| Acronym | Expansion | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| EU | European Union | |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization | |
| UAE | United Arab Emirates | |
| UK | United Kingdom | |
| UN | United Nations | Similarly for UN organisations such as UNESCO and UNICEF. |
| US or U.S. | United States | Both variants are used, but avoid mixing dotted and undotted within the same article; use "US" in articles with other national abbreviations (e.g., "UK", "UAE", "USSR"). Using United States instead of an acronym is often better formal writing style, and is an opportunity for commonality. USA, U.S.A. and U.S. of A. are generally not used except in quoted material (see WP:Manual of Style#US and U.S.). |
| USSR | Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
Other
editAcronyms in this table do not need to be written out in full upon first use, except in their own articles or where not doing so would cause ambiguity.
| Acronym | Expansion | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AD | anno Domini ("in the year of our Lord") | Should not be written out in full in dates and does not need to be linked. Do not use in the year of our Lord or any other translation of Anno Domini. |
| AIDS | acquired immunodeficiency syndrome | |
| a.k.a. or AKA | also known as | Should only be used in small spaces, otherwise use the full phrase. It does not need to be linked. Use the {{a.k.a.}} template on first occurrence on the page to provide a mouse-over tooltip explaining the meaning: a.k.a. Should not be written aka.
|
| AM | amplitude modulation | |
| am or a.m. | ante meridiem | Should not be written out in full for clock time, and does not need to be linked. It should not be written AM or A.M. |
| BBC | British Broadcasting Corporation | |
| BC | before Christ | Should not be written out in full in dates and does not need to be linked. |
| BCE | Before Common Era | Should not be written out in full in dates. |
| CD | compact disc | |
| CE | Common Era | Should not be written out in full in dates. |
| DVD | digital versatile disc (or digital video disc) |
Should not be written out in full and should not be linked to its expansion. |
| e.g. | exempli gratia ("for example") | Should not be italicised, linked, or written out in full in normal usage. |
| FM | frequency modulation | |
| HDMI | high-definition multimedia interface | |
| HIV | human immunodeficiency virus | |
| i.e. | id est ("that is" / "in other words") | Should not be italicised, linked, or written out in full in normal usage. |
| laser | light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation | |
| LGBT | Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender | Is considered to be intelligible on its own, without explanation. However, editors may add a link at their own discretion the first time the term appears in an article, to clarify any potential confusion. |
| n/a or N/A | not applicable | Should not be written n.a., N.A., NA or na. |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | |
| PC | personal computer | Does not need to be written out in full on first use, nor provided on first use in parentheses after the full term if written out. |
| pm or p.m. | post meridiem | Should not be written out in full in times and does not need to be linked. It should not be written PM or P.M. |
| radar | radio detection and ranging | |
| scuba | self-contained underwater breathing apparatus | |
| sonar | sound navigation and ranging | |
| TV | television | Generally use "TV" in most articles except historic articles and cultural or scholarly discussions, e.g. "TV show", "TV cameras", "the effects of television on speech patterns". Do not link or explain in normal usage. |
| USB | universal serial bus |
Acronyms in page titles
editAcronyms should be used in a page name if the subject is known primarily by its abbreviation and that abbreviation is primarily associated with the subject (e.g. NASA; in contrast, consensus has rejected moving Central Intelligence Agency to its acronym, in view of arguments that the full name is used in professional and academic publications). In general, if readers somewhat familiar with the subject are likely to only recognise the name by its acronym, then the acronym should be used as a title. If the acronym and the full name are both in common use, both pages should exist, with one (usually the abbreviation) redirecting to the other or being a disambiguation page.
One general exception to this rule deals with our strong preference for natural disambiguation. Many acronyms are used for several things; naming a page with the full name helps to avoid clashes. For instance, multiple TV/radio broadcasting companies share the initials ABC; even though some may be far better known by that acronym, our articles on those companies are found at, for example, American Broadcasting Company rather than ABC (American TV network).[a] A useful test to determine what an abbreviation usually refers to can be done by checking Acronym Finder or Abbreviations.com and finding the relative usage. If it is found that a particular subject is overwhelmingly denoted by an unambiguous acronym, the article title on that subject can be expressed as the acronym and a disambiguation page can be used for the other subjects.
In many cases, no decision is necessary because a given acronym has several expansions, none of which is the most prominent. Under such circumstances, an article should be named with the spelled-out phrase and the acronym should be a disambiguation page providing descriptive links to all of them. See, for example, AJAR, which disambiguates between African Journal of AIDS Research and Australian Journal of Agricultural Research. A title like AJAR (African journal) should be avoided if at all possible.
Acronyms as disambiguators
editTo save space, acronyms should be used as disambiguators, when necessary. For example, "Georgia (U.S. state)", "Great Northern Railway (U.S.)" and "Labour Party (UK)". The abbreviations are preferred over United States and United Kingdom, for brevity. In running text, more natural wording is often better ("the US state of Georgia", "US-based Great Northern Railway", "the Labour Party of the UK"), though this may depend on context.
To help navigation to article titles with these United States abbreviations, please create a redirect that contains (U.S.) or (US) as needed. For example, "Great Northern Railway (US)" should redirect to "Great Northern Railway (U.S.)" (or the other way around). Wikipedia does not use USA, except in proper names and in standardized codes (e.g. FIFA's) that use it.
Acronyms in category names
editContractions
editA contraction is an abbreviation of one or more words that has some or all of the middle letters removed but retains the first and final letters (e.g. Mr and aren't). Missing letters are replaced by an apostrophe in most multiple-word contractions. Contractions such as aren't should not be used in Wikipedia, except in quoted material; use the full wording (e.g., are not) instead. The contraction o'clock is an exception, as it is standard in all registers of writing. Certain placenames may use particular contractions .
Per the guideline on titles of people, prefix titles such as Mr, Dr, and Prof. should not be used. Prefixes of royalty and nobility often should be used, but not in abbreviated form.
Initials
edit
Shortenings
editA shortening is an abbreviation formed by removing at least the last letter of a word (e.g. etc. and rhino), and sometimes also containing letters not present in the full form (e.g. bike). As a general rule, use a full point after a shortening that only exists in writing (e.g. etc.) but not for a shortening that is used in speech (e.g. rhino). In general, a full form is as acceptable as a shortened form, but there are exceptions e.g. etc. should be used over et cetera. Uncommon, non-obvious shortenings should be explained or linked on first use on a page.
Songwriting credits
editOutside of prose, trad. and arr. may be used in songwriting credits to save space. On first usage, use {{trad.}} and {{arr.}}, which will display a mouse-over tooltip expanding the abbreviation. Similarly, feat. for featuring has become common in modern music, and may appear in song or album credits, or in actual song titles, depending on the specific work. The template {{feat.}} exists for it. Avoid using the ambiguous hyper-abbreviation ft. except in verbatim material such as titles and quotations.
Miscellaneous shortenings
edit| Shortening | Expansion | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| approx. | approximately | It should only be used in small spaces. It does not need to be linked. |
| c. | circa ('around') | In dates, to indicate around, approximately, or about. In text the unitalicised abbreviation c. is preferred over circa, ca, ca., approximately, or approx. It should not be italicised in normal usage. The template {{circa}} should be used at first occurrence. In a table or otherwise where space is limited there may be less context and approx. may be clearer or if space is really tight ~ might be used instead.
|
| cf. | confer ('compare' / 'consult') | It should be linked on first use. |
| Co. | Company | It should only be used in the names of companies (e.g., "PLC", "LLC", "Inc.", "Ltd.", "GmbH"), and can usually be omitted unless an ambiguity would result. It does not need to be linked. |
| ed. (eds.) | edition/editor (editions/editors) | This shortening (and its plural contraction) should only be used in references. It does not need to be linked. |
| et al. | et alii ('and others') | It should normally only be used in references (see the |display-authors= feature of the citation templates), and where it is part of a name, such as of a legal case, e.g. United States v. Thompson et al. It need not be linked.
|
| fl. | floruit ('flourished') | Use template {{floruit}} on first use. Do not use flor. or flr. |
| lit. | literal, or literal translation | It should be linked (usually to Literal translation, unless some other meaning is meant) on first use, unless {{abbr}} is used to explain it. Many language formatting templates have a parameter that deals with this for you.
|
| rev. | revised | It should only be used in references. It does not need to be linked. |
| vs./vs/v./v | versus (against / in contrast to) | They do not need to be linked or explained with {{abbr}}. The full word should be used in most cases, but it is conventional to use an abbreviation in certain contexts. In sports, it is "vs." or "vs", depending on dialect. In law, the usage is "v." or "v", depending on jurisdiction. In other contexts, use "vs." when abbreviation is necessary (e.g., in a compact table). The word and its abbreviations should not be italicised, since they have long been assimilated into the English language. (However, legal case names are themselves italicised, like book titles, including the "v." or "v".)
|
| viz. | videlicet ('that is to say' / 'namely') | It should be linked on first use. |
Symbols
editUnit symbols
editMiscellaneous symbols
edit- The ampersand (&), a replacement for the word and, should only be used in small spaces such as tables and infoboxes, but, preferably, should be avoided even there. However, it is common in many trademarks and titles of published works, and should be retained when found in them.
Unicode abbreviation ligatures
editDo not use Unicode characters that put an abbreviation into a single character (unless the character itself is the subject of the text), e.g.: №, ㋏, ㎇, ㉐, Ⅶ, ℅, ™︎. These are not all well-supported in Western fonts. This does not apply to currency symbols, such as ₨ and ₠. For more comprehensive lists, see Ligatures in Unicode, Letterlike Symbols, CJK Compatibility, Enclosed CJK Letters and Months, and Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement.
Latinisms and abbreviations
editAs with other non-English vocabulary, Latin-language terms should be tagged as such using the {{lang|la|...}} template, which automatically italicises the text. This includes Latin abbreviations, except those that are commonly used in English, such as AD, c., e.g., etc., i.e., and several others found in the table above. Do not use &c. in place of etc.
Other Latinisms that are considered English vocabulary and therefore are not tagged or italicised include versus and per cent. If in doubt, consult reliable dictionaries and follow their lead.
Abbreviations widely used in Wikipedia
edit
Wikipedia has found it both practical and efficient to use the following abbreviations in tight quarters such as citations, tables, and lists. Most should be replaced, in regular running text, by unabbreviated expansions or essentially synonymous plain English (that is for i.e., namely for viz., and so on), when space permits or when the material would be clearer to more readers. A common rule of thumb regarding i.e. and e.g. is that they are best used in parentheticals rather than in the main flow of a sentence. Versions of non-acronym abbreviations that do not end in full points (periods) are more common in British than North American English and are always[b] abbreviations that compress a word while retaining its first and last letters (i.e., contractions: Dr, St, Revd) rather than truncation abbreviations (Prof., Co.). That said, US military ranks are often abbreviated without this punctuation (though they should not be given in all-caps, despite that style existing "in the wild" in some publications).
| Word(s) | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Places | |
| Avenue | Ave. |
| Boulevard | Blvd. or Blvd |
| Court | Ct. or Ct (use only for a few houses) |
| Drive | Dr. or Dr |
| East | E. or E (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| Freeway | Fwy. or Fwy (the term is not generally used outside of North America) |
| Highway | Hwy. or Hwy (the term is not generally used outside of North America) |
| Motorway | Mwy (the term is not generally used in North America) |
| Mountain | Mtn. or Mtn |
| Mount | Mt. or Mt |
| North | N. or N (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| North East or Northeast | N.E. or NE (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| North West or Northwest | N.W. or NW (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| Road | Rd. or Rd |
| South | S. or S (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| South East or Southeast | S.E. or SE (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| South West or Southwest | S.W. or SW (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| Street | St. or St |
| West | W. or W (use only in street addresses, coordinates, and other special contexts, not in usual text) |
| Organisation name elements | |
| Academy | Acad. |
| Association | Assn. or Assn |
| Associates | Assoc. |
| College | Coll. |
| Company | Co. |
| Corporation | Corp. |
| Doing business as | d.b.a. or DBA (avoid d/b/a and D/B/A; these are obsolete) |
| Incorporated | Inc. |
| Institute/Institution | Inst. |
| Limited | Ltd. or Ltd |
| Limited liability company (or partnership) | LLC (LLP) |
| Public limited company | plc or PLC |
| Manufacturing | Mfg. or Mfg |
| Press | Pr. |
| Publications | Pub., Pubs., Pubs |
| Publishing | Pubg. or Pubg |
| University | Univ., U., or Uni. |
| Academic degrees, professional titles, etc., used with personal names | |
| Bachelor of Arts (Artium Baccalaureus) | BA or AB |
| Bachelor of Laws (Legum Baccalaureus) | LLB |
| Bachelor of Science | BS or BSc |
| Master of Arts | MA or AM |
| Master of Science | MS or MSc |
| Doctor | Dr. or Dr |
| Doctor of Medicine (Medicinæ Doctor) | MD |
| Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophiæ Doctor) | PhD |
| Honorable | Hon. |
| Right Honourable | Rt. Hon. or Rt Hon. |
| Junior | Jnr (not to be confused with Jr.) |
| Monsignor | Mons., Msgr., or Msgr |
| Registered nurse | RN |
| Reverend | Rev. or Revd |
| Saint | St. or St |
| Senior | Snr (not to be confused with Sr.) |
| Military ranks | |
| General | Gen. |
| Colonel | Col. or Col |
| Commander | Cmdr., Cmdr, Cdr, or Comdr |
| Major | Maj. or Maj |
| Captain | Capt. |
| Lieutenant | Lt. or Lt |
| Master sergeant | MSgt. or MSgt |
| Technical sergeant | TSgt. or TSgt |
| Staff sergeant | SSgt. or SSgt |
| Sergeant | Sgt. or Sgt |
| Corporal | Cpl. or Cpl |
| Private | Pvt. or Pvt |
| Citation elements | |
| Chapter | chap. |
| No date | n.d. |
Special considerations
edit- Postal codes and abbreviations of place names—e.g., Calif. (California), TX (Texas), Yorks. (Yorkshire)—should not be used to stand for the full names in normal text. They can be used in tables when space is tight but should be marked up with
{{abbr}}template on first occurrence. They should not be used in infoboxes. An exception is Washington, D.C., which has been conventionally called so, for reasons of clarity, since long before postal codes were invented. "Washington, D.C.", or "Washington, DC", may be used in tables whether or not other state postal codes appear. Never use "Washington D.C." (without a comma). - Saint (or Sainte) versus the St and St. (or Ste.) abbreviations in placenames should follow the most common rendering found in reliable sources for that particular locale; this will most often match the official name of the place.
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ For television-related articles, use the country adjective. See this RfC for additional information.
- ^ Some British/Commonwealth news publishers have begun dropping the dots from all abbreviations. This defies the major British style guides on this matter and produces too many ambiguities for encyclopedic writing.
