English Vocabulary for ESL learners
ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS and INITIALISMS
Examples of abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms with their meaning.
Abbreviations are shortened forms of a written word, phrase or name used in place
of the whole, for example: ‘Dr.’ for Doctor, ‘Mr.’ for Mister, ‘gym’ for gymnastics, 'Tim' for Timothy,
p.s. for post script. Abbreviations are found in almost every area of life.
Acronyms and initialisms are also abbreviations.
An acronym is created from the initial letters of a long name or phrase,
and pronounced as a word,
for example, NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization).
Since are acronyms are treated as words and pronounced as words, there are no full stops between the letters.
An initialism is a sort of acronym where a long phrase is abbreviated to its initial letters but the letters are
pronounced individually, for example,
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
In British English, full stops are not usually used between each letter (FBI rather than F.B.I.)
In American English, it is a question of style.
The use of full stops (or
periods) is more common in American English. (F.B.I. rather than FBI)
| ABBREVIATIONS | MEANING |
| A.D. | Anno Domini |
| ad | advertisement |
| adj. | adjective |
| adv. | adverb |
| a.m. | ante meridiem (before noon) |
| app | application |
| B.C. | Before Christ |
| e.g. | exampli gratia (for example) |
| etc | etcetera (and other things; and so on) |
| flu | influenza (an illness) |
| i.e. | id est (that is) |
| in. | inch(es) |
| lb(s). | pound(s) (from the Roman 'libra') |
| n.b. | nota bene (note well; take notice) |
| oz | ounce(s) |
| pl. | plural |
| p.m. | post meridiem (after noon) |
| p.s. | post scriptum (written after) |
| p.t.o. | please turn over |
| rhino | rhinoceros |
| St. | Saint or Street |
Examples of acronyms:
| ACRONYMS | MEANING |
| AIDS | Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome |
| LASER | Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation |
| NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement |
| NASA | National Aeronautical and Space Administration |
| NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement |
| NASA | National Aeronautical and Space Administration |
| OPEC | Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries |
| PIN | Personal Identification Number |
| RAM | Random Access Memory |
| ROM | Read Only Memory |
| Radar | Radio detecting and ranging |
| Scuba | Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus |
| UNICEF | United Nations Children's Fund |
| WASP | White Anglo Saxon Protestant |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
Examples of initialisms:
| INITIALISMS | MEANING |
| AC | Air Conditioning |
| CD | Compact Disk |
| CCTV | Closed-Circuit Television |
| CV | Curriculum Vitae (resume) |
| DVD | Digital Video Disk |
| EAP | English for Academic Purposes |
| EFL | English as a Foreign Language |
| EFL | English as a Second Language |
| ELT | English Language Teaching |
| EU | European Union |
| FAQ | Frequently Asked Questioins |
| FBI | Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| FM | Frequency Modulation |
| GMT | Greenwich Mean Time |
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language |
| IQ | Intelligence Quotient |
| ISBN | International Standard Book Number |
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group |
| NBA | National Basketball Association |
| PC | Personal computer |
| RIP | Rest in Peace (from the Latin, "Requiescat In Pace") |
| RSVP | Repondez S'il Vous Plait (from French, meaning: 'please respond') |
| UN | United Nations |
| UK | United Kingdom |
| USA | United States of America |
See also: Business abbreviations
Please note that British English spelling is used on this website.