Business Word Abbreviations
The business world covers a lot of issues that the average person may not understand, such as, income statements, profit loss accounts, data analytics, and databases. If you want to sound like an Executive use this list to bone up on your business abbreviations.
Business Abbreviation vs. Business Acronym
The dictionary defines abbreviation as a shortened form of a word or phrase. It is different from an acronym, which is a word formed using the first few letters or characters of a word. Many people consider business acronyms to be business abbreviations. Technically, this is true since an acronym is a shortened version of the phrase. However, although all abbreviations are technically acronyms, not all abbreviations are acronym.
An abbreviation is considered a business abbreviation if it is used in a particular business. Of course, since business is a broad field, the nature of business abbreviations changes by field and there are a wide array of business abbreviations. For example, a person in the health care field has a whole different vocabulary of business abbreviations than a person in military, law enforcement or government. Some business abbreviations are easy to decode and discern, while others are a bit more confusing, especially if you aren’t familiar with the industry lingo.
Common Business Abbreviations and their Definitions
This list covers the more general, or broad, business abbreviations not relevnt to a particular field or industry.
- 1st: First
- 2nd: Second
- @: At
- &: And
- Abv: Above
- Acdmc: Academic:
- Acdmy: Academy
- Acdnt: Accident
- Acct: account
- Ap.: Application
- Approx: approximately
- Attn; Attention
- BAT business Action Theory
- Bcc: Blind copied to
- BD: Business Development
- BDC: Business Development Company/Council
- BIMS: Business Information management Suite
- BPA: Business Professional of America
- BPC: Business planning cycle
- Cc: Copies To
- CEO: Chief Executive Officer
- CFO: Chief Financial Officer
- CIO: Chief Information Officer
- COD: Cash on delivery
- Comp: Item given for free
- ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival
- GDP: Gross domestic product
- Inc.: Incorporated
- IPO: Initial Public Offering
- Lb: Pound
- Ltd.: Limited Company
- LLC: Limited Liability Corp.
- Mo: month
- Mt: Month
- No.: Number
- P: Plaintiff
- Pd: paid
- Pls: Please
- PR: Public relations
- Qty: quantity
- Re: In reference to
- Sci; Science
- Scrn: Screen
- Secl; Secretarial
- Sfty: Safety
- Sls: Sales
- Slsmn: Salesman
- Slvg: Salvage
- Sanitn: Sanitation
- Stsfctn: Satisfaction
- Svngs: Savings
- Thx: Thanks
- Trd: Trade
- Trfc: Traffic
- Trnsfr: Transfer
- Trnsprtn: Transportation
- Ttl: Total
- Twr: Tower
- Twne: Towne
- Unltd: Unlimited
- Utlztn: Utilization
- Val: Value
- Vlt: Vault
- Vehic: Vehicle
- Vetrn; Veteran
- Vid: Video
- Vstng: Visiting
- Vstr: Visitor
- Visl: Visual
- Volntr: Volunteer
- Wrhse: Warehouse
- W/o: Without
- Wst: waste
- Wght: Weight
- Whl: Wheel
- Whol: Wholesale
- Wirg: Wiring
- Wrkr: Worker
- Wrkshp: Workshop
- Wld: World
- Wrldwd: Worldwide
- Ycht: yacht
Now, when you hear the "The CEO wants to ttl. wrldwd stsfctn & sls w/o wst so he vlt the co. to 1st and get a ycht comped,” you’ll know exactly what it means!