List of Commonly Used Abbreviations

Abbreviations are short forms of lengthy expressions. Abbreviations are distinct from acronyms, which are words made from the first letters of a series of words, such as MADD for Mothers Against Drunk Driving or SWAT from Special Weapons and Tactics. Abbreviations are in use in almost every discipline and area of life.

Abbreviations range from commonly used abbreviations like names, for instance Mr. for Mister or Sgt for Sergeant, to less commonly used abbreviations, such as the shortened version of abbreviation itself, which is abbr. The US is itself a well-established abbreviation. Abbreviations exist in all areas of life from medicine to military and international relations to religion.

Understanding Latin-based Abbreviations 

Looking at Latin, the root of the English language, is a good way to decipher abbreviations. The most popular abbreviations that we use in our day to day life are derived from this ancient language. For example:

• AM, which we use to denote morning, is an abbreviation for ante meridian, and PM stands for post meridian.
• The era in which we live, AD, is actually an abbreviation for Anno Domini, or “The Year of Our Lord.”

Latin has also gifted us with other abbreviations that we use so frequently that at times, we seem to forget what they stand for such as:

• When someone quotes an example and uses the abbreviation e.g. to express it, it stands for exampli gratia, which means, “example given.”
• Also, i.e., another equally popular abbreviation we use in daily life, stands for id est, meaning, “that is.”
• “Etc”, which is used also used often, is short for etcetera, which means “and other things.”
• Another popular Latin abbreviation we use in our daily life is “viz”, which stands for videlicet, meaning “namely.”
• Other popular Latin abbreviations include n.b which is written at the end of a communication. It stands for nota bene, which means “take notice,” or “note well.”

List of Commonly Used Abbreviations

States of the United States

Perhaps the most commonly used abbreviations used in the US are found in the names of the 50 states:

• Alabama: AL
• Alaska: AK
• Arizona: AZ
• Arkansas: AR
• California: CA
• Colorado: CO
• Connecticut: CT
• Delaware: DE
• Florida: FL
• Georgia: GA
• Hawaii: HI
• Idaho: ID
• Illinois: IL
• Indiana: IN
• Iowa: IA
• Kansas: KS
• Kentucky: KY
• Louisiana: LA
• Maine: ME
• Maryland: MD
• Massachusetts: MA
• Michigan: MI
• Minnesota: MN
• Mississippi: MS
• Missouri: MO
• Montana: MT
• Nebraska: NE
• Nevada: NV
• New Hampshire: NH
• New Jersey: NJ
• New Mexico: NM
• New York: NY
• North Carolina: NC
• North Dakota: ND
• Ohio: OH
• Oklahoma: OK
• Oregon: OR
• Pennsylvania: PA
• Rhode Island: RI
• South Carolina: SC
• South Dakota: SD
• Tennessee: TN
• Texas: TX
• Utah: UT
• Vermont: VT
• Virginia: VA
• Washington: WA
• West Virginia: WV
• Wisconsin: WI
• Wyoming: WY

Measurements for Cooking and Baking

Abbreviations are also necessary for measurements for cooking and baking- after all, your cake won't come out very well if you don't know the difference between:

• tsp or t - teaspoon/teaspoons
• tbs, tbsp or T - tablespoon/tablespoons
• c - cup/cups
• lb - pound/pounds

Map Locations

If you want to find your way around, you better know location abbreviations such as:

• St - street
• Ave - avenue
• Rd - road

In other words, almost anything you want to do will require you to know an abbreviation or two.

Educational Degrees and Job Titles

Abbreviations often show up in describing educational degrees and job titles. For example:

• BA - Bachelor of Arts
• BS - Bachelor of Science
• MA - Master of Arts
• JD - Juris Doctor
• DC - Doctor of Chiropractic

• PA - Personal Assistant
• MD - Managing Director
• VP - Vice President
• SVP - Senior Vice President
• CEO - Chief Executive Officer

Internet Chat

The advent of the Internet has brought about a whole new range of abbreviations we may use in our daily life. Among these abbreviations, online chat has evolved and created a language of its own, made up almost entirely of abbreviations. For example:

• LOL - laugh-out-loud
• ROLF - rolling on the floor laughing
• & - and

• ACE  - a cool experience
• AD - awesome dude
• AFAIR - as far as I remember
• AFK - away from keyboard
• ANI - age not important
• CUL - see you later
• CWYL - chat with you later
• IQ - ignorance quotient

These are just a handful of innumerable abbreviations that are used in chat language.

Abbreviations have become an inalienable part of our lives.