Wikipedia:Manual of Style (abbreviations)

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In Wikipedia, abbreviations for common terms are often in parenthetical notes within the head paragraph, as well as in other tangential notes (though these may violate MoS —see Wikipedia:No self-refs).

While the Manual of Style may defer to other sources (Chicago MoS, etc.), in practice Wikipedia has found it both practical and efficient to use a slightly altered and simplified set of abbreviations.

Guidance on style
Manual of Style
Supplementary manuals
Abbreviations Biographies Capital letters Command-line examples Dashes Dates and numbers Headings Legal Links Lists of works Mathematics Music Pronunciation Spelling Text formatting Titles Trademarks Writing about fiction
Special article styles
Disambiguation pages Arabic transliteration China-related articles Ethiopia-related articles Ireland-related articles Islam-related articles Japan-related articles Korea-related articles Latter Day Saints Medicine-related articles Portugal-related articles
Other guidance
How to edit a page Guide to layout Captions Categorization Categorization of people Cite sources Explain jargon Footnotes Writing better articles Lead section Lists Music samples Naming conventions Overlinking Picture tutorial Proper names Sections Sister projects Summary style Technical terms and definitions Words to avoid

Such include:

Complete Word(s)	Abbreviation
Artium Baccalaureus (Bachelor of Arts)	A.B. or B.A.
abbreviation	abbr.
Academy	Acad.
anno Domini (in the year of our Lord)	AD or A.D.
ante meridiem (Before noon)	a.m.
Amplitude Modulation	AM
Association	Assn.
Avenue	Ave.
absent without leave	AWOL
born	b.
Bachelor of Arts (Artium Baccalaureus)	B.A. or A.B.
Before Christ	BC or B.C.
Before the Common Era	BCE
Bachelor of Science	B.S. or B.Sc. or BSc
Captain	Capt. or Capt
Common Era	CE
Colonel	Col. or Col
Commander	Comdr. or Cdr
Corporation	Corp.
Corporal	Cpl. or Cpl
died	d.
department	dept.
district	dist.
division	div.
Doctor	Dr. or Dr
edition	ed.
established	est.
et alii (and others)	et al.
et cetera (and the rest)	etc.
exempli gratia (for example)	e.g.
General	Gen. or Gen
Greenwich mean time	GMT
Gross National Product	GNP
Grand Old Party (U.S. Republican Party)	GOP
Honorable	Hon.
id est (that is to say)	i.e.
Incorporated	inc.
Institute/Institution	Inst.
Internal Revenue Service	IRS
Junior	Jr. or Jr
Latitude	lat.
Legum Baccalaureus (Bachelor of Laws)	LL.B. or LLB
Longitude	long.
Lieutenant	Lt. or Lt
Limited	Ltd.
Medicinae Doctor (Doctor of Medicine)	M.D.
Mister	Mr. or Mr
Missus	Mrs. or Mrs
Monsignor	Msgr
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People	NAACP
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	NASA
North Atlantic Treaty Organization	NATO
Organization of American States	OAS
Philosophiæ Doctor (Doctor of Philosophy)	Ph.D. or PhD
post meridiem (After noon)	p.m.
publisher/published	pub.
Reverend/Revelation	Rev.
revised	rev.
registered nurse	R.N.
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization	SEATO
Securities and Exchange Commission	SEC
Saint	St. or St
Sergeant	Sgt. or Sgt
Senior	Sr. or Sr
Staff Sergeant	SSgt. or Ssg.
Technical Sergeant	Tsgt.
United Nations Children's Fund	UNICEF
University	Univ.
United Kingdom	UK
United States	U.S.
United States Army/United States of America	USA
United States Air Force	USAF
United States Coast Guard	USCG
United States Marine Corps	USMC
United States Navy	USN
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics	USSR
volume	vol.
World Health Organization	WHO
Young Men's Christian Association	YMCA
Young Women's Christian Association	YWCA

[edit] Things to avoid

• The U.S. postal codes, such as TX for Texas, should not be used to stand in for their states in normal text.
• Mt. (and the British Mt) should not be used. Mount or Mountain should be spelled out in most situations. Exceptions may be made for official names specified by national name authorities and registered trademarks.

[edit] See also

• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (abbreviations)