Abbreviation Definition & Big List of Abbreviations with Meaning

September 6, 2019 Abbreviations, Editor Picks 3 Comments

What is an abbreviation? Learn abbreviation definition and how to use them in both formal and informal speech. This lesson also provides a useful list of different types of abbreviations with meaning in English.

Table of Contents

Abbreviation Definition and Usage

What is an Abbreviation?

Both in formal and informal speech, we don’t always write the whole word or phrase and use a shortened form instead. For example, it’s common to come across an “etc.” or “i.e.” in an essay and an “OMG” or “FYI” in a text message you receive from a friend. All of these are abbreviations.

Even though it might seem that abbreviations are a rather modern phenomenon that exploded due to technology and text messages, they’ve actually been around for thousands of years. In fact, in ancient Greece and Rome, it was common to shorten words by their first letter. As for the English language, it’s been full of abbreviations from the very beginning. Beowulf, an Old English epic poem from some time around the tenth century, is only one example of works that had shortened forms of words in them.

Why Do We Use Abbreviations?

The reason why abbreviations have been popular hundreds of years ago and why they still remain so today is that they help us save space and time. Obviously, it takes a lot less effort to write SARS than it would if you were to write “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome”, the whole phrase that it stands for. In addition, in the modern world, there sometimes is the need to fit as much information as possible into one message while having a limited amount of characters. For instance, Twitter doesn’t allow tweets to be longer than 280 characters. It’s natural to shorten all the words that can be shortened, to make sure that everything you want to say fits into a single tweet.

Abbreviations can take various forms, and there isn’t a rule that would strictly define how words can or can’t be shortened. One option is representing the word by its first letter or by the first few letters, e.g. v. for verb and Co. for company. Some abbreviations take the most important letters of the word, such as Ltd. that stands for limited, or Revd that stands for Reverend. A single word can also be shortened by taking only the first and the last letter, e.g. Dr. for Doctor, Rd. for road. It’s also common that first letters of the words in a phrase are used instead of a whole phrase. Examples are BTW for by the way and RSVP for répondez s’il vous plaît.

Many abbreviations appeared at the end of the 20th century when people started sending each other text messages. These are most commonly first letters of the words in a phrase, such as TMI that stands for too much information. Sometimes letters are replaced with numbers to make an abbreviation; thus, L8r stands for later.

Often quite a few questions arise when it comes to abbreviations. Do I use a full stop after the shortened version of the word? Do I use lowercase or uppercase letters? What do I do if I need a plural form? These are just some of those questions. However, just as it is with the majority of English grammar, practice makes perfect. If you keep using abbreviations in your writing, you soon will have no problems with them.

Learn more about acronyms and the difference between acronym vs abbreviation.

Abbreviations List

List of different types of abbreviations with meaning in English.

Business & Finance Abbreviations

Examples of common business abbreviations in English.

Assoc. = Association
Corp. = Corporation
Inc. = Incorporated
Ltd. = Limited
BKPR = Bookkeeper
LET = Leaving Early Today
FTE = Full-time Employee
OTP = On The Phone
WOM = Word of Mouth
IAM = In A Meeting
NIM = No Internal Message
PTE = Part-time Employee
NRN = No Reply Necessary
WIIFM = What’s In It For Me
WFH = Work From Home
HQ = Headquarters
LLC = Limited Liability Corp.

Marketing & Sales Acronyms

Examples of sales and marketing acronyms in English.

B2B = Business to Business
B2C = Business to Customer
BR = Bounce Rate
CMS = Content Management System
CPC = Cost Per Click
CTA = Call to Action
CTR = Click Through Rate
CR = Conversion Rate
DM = Direct Message
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
SM = Social Media
SWOT = Streng, Weekness, Opportunity, Threat
CX = Customer Experience
FB = Facebook
POS = Point of Sale
PV = Page Views
RTD = Real Time Data
SEM = Search Engine Marketing
SMM = Social Media Marketing
SMS = Short Message Service

Medical Abbreviations

a.c. = Before meals
a/g ratio = Albumin to globulin ratio.
b.i.d. = Twice daily
bld = Blood
BP = Blood Pressure
C/O = Complaint of
ETOH = Alcohol
ECT = Electro Conclusive Therapy
g = gram
GvHD = Graft vs. Host Disease
gtt = Drops
h.s. = At bedtime
HA = Headache
ICU = Intensive Care Unit
ITU = Intensive Therapy Unit
in vitro = In the laboratory
in vivo = In the body
IU = International Units
JT = Joint
LBP = Low Back Pain
mg = Milligrams
ml = Milliliters
M/H = Medical History
MVP = Mitral Valve Prolapse
N/V = Nausea or Vomiting
NCP = Nursing Care Plan
npo = Nothing by mouth
NSR = Normal sinus rhythm of the heart
O.D. = Right eye
O.S. = Left eye
O.U. = Both eyes
P = Pulse
p.o. = By mouth
p.r.n. = As needed
PD = Progressive disease
PT = Physical therapy
q.d. = Each day
q2h = Every 2 hours
qAM = Each morning
qhs = At each bedtime
qod = Every other day
qPM = Each evening
s/p = Status post
SOB = Shortness of Breath
T = Temperature
tab = Tablet
Wt = Weight

Title Abbreviations

P = President
VP = President
SVP = Senior Vice President
EVP = Executive Vice President
CMO = Chief Marketing Officer
CFO = Chief Financial Officer
CEO = Chief Executive Officer
PA = Personal Assistant
Dpt. = Department
Gov. = Government
Mgmt. = Management
Pol. = Politics
Capt. = Captain
Col. = Colonel
Dr. = Doctor
Gen. = General
Lt. = Lieutenant
MD = Medical Doctor
Mr. = Mister
Prof. = Professor
RN = Registered Nurse
St. = Saint
Sgt. = Sergeant
Sr. = Senior

Note Taking/ Writing Abbreviations

Examples of common abbreviations for note taking.

Etc. = And more
E.g. = For example
I.e. = For example
W/= With
W/O = Without
B/c = Because
B/4 = Before
Ea. = Each
Fr. = From
S/t = Something
Gen. = Generally
E/o = Either/ or
Max = Maximum
Min = Minimum
Diff = Difference
Approx = Approximately
Cf = Compared to
V. = Very
Vs. = Against
K = thousand
Subj. = Subject
Int’l = International
<= Less than
>= Greater than
& = And
@ = At

Time Abbreviations

AM = Ante Meridiem (before noon)
PM = Post Meridiem (afternoon)
AD = After the Year 0
BC = Before the Year 0
hr = Hour
min = Minute
sec = Second

Postal Terms & Direction Terms

Apt. = Apartment
Ave. = Avenue
Ct. = Court
Dr. = Drive
Hwy. = Highway
Ln. = Lane
Mt. = Mountain/ Mount
Rd. = Road
St. = Street
Ste. = Suite

N = North
S = South
E = East
W = West

Measurement Abbreviations

Gal. = Gallon
Lb. = Pounds
Pt. = Pints
Qt. = Quarts
G = Gram
Kg = Kilogram
Cm = Centimeter
M = Meter
ft. = foot
in. = inch
mi. = mile
mph. = miles per hour
mg. = milligram
mm = milimeter
no. = number
oz = ounce
sq = square
vol. = volume

There are hundreds of abbreviations to describe specific business tools or terms that can aid decision making, creativity and problem solving in the workplace. In this section, we’ll cover some of the most popular:

20. POSDCORB: An early management model to help you cover every admin angle. It stands for Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting.

21. CRAAP: No, I’m not just being rude, CRAAP is a well-known and well-used way to help people to critically evaluate information. It stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.

22. SMART: A goal-setting tool which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound – or a few variations of that!

23. SCAMPER: You might like to use this tool next time you host a brainstorming session. SCAMPER helps you to generate ideas for new products by asking questions about existing products focusing on seven key areas – Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.

24. DILO: If you’re concerned about how well you or your team are using your time, why not try DILO (Day In the Life Of) analysis to track and note down what’s actually being done each day.

25. GROW: The GROW Model can help you to structure coaching sessions according to Goal, current Reality, Options (or Obstacles), and Will (or Way forward).

26. OSKAR: Another popular coaching model, OSKAR is a solutions-focused framework designed to address performance or behavioral problems. It stands for Outcome, Scale, Know-how, Affirm + Action, and Review.

27. MBO: Management by Objectives aims to align employees’ objectives with the organization’s wider strategic goals.

28. VUCA: First coined by the U.S. Army College, this term describes the unfamiliar global environment post-9/11. It is used in the business world to reflect the turbulent forces of change since the global financial collapse of 2008. VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

29. SWOT: This ever-popular tool assesses business or personal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

30. SOAR: This is a strategic planning tool that combines hard data with a wide consultation of people’s ideas and dreams. It stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results.

31. PEST: Another popular analytical tool. PEST helps you to identify the “big picture” opportunities and threats affecting your organization by assessing the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, and Technological changes in your environment.

32. VRIO: Evaluate the potential and effectiveness of your organization’s underlying resources by questioning each one’s Value, Rarity, Inimitability, and Organization.

33. OGSM: Organize and deliver your vision according to your Objective, Goal, Strategies, and Measures.

34. VAK: A model that classifies people’s preferred method of learning into three main categories – Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic.

35. MBWA: This popular tool helps managers to be available to their teams, out on the “shop floor.” It stands for Management by Wandering Around.

Finance Acronyms

Your CFO (chief financial officer) keeps asking for the P&L statement and wants to know what the ROI was for your organization’s latest acquisition. Don’t know what he’s on about? Worry no more. These handy financial acronyms will help you to make “cents” (sorry) of it all:

36. ACCT: Account.

37. BS: I know what you’re thinking. But, no, in accounting this, very innocently, refers to Balance Sheet. So, beware the context in which you use it!

38. CR: Credit.

39. DR: Debit. (Be aware that in other areas of business this term can also stand for Disaster Recovery.)

40. EPS: Earnings per share. This refers to the amount of earnings allocated to each outstanding share of an organization’s common stock.

41. FIFO: First in, first out. This is a term used for managing inventory, and means that the cost of the oldest inventory items is counted as sold first, even if this is not physically the case.

42. LIFO: Last in, first out. Another term used in inventory management. LIFO assumes that the most recent inventory items are the ones sold first.

43. IPO: Initial public offering.

44. EBIT: Earnings before interest and tax. This is often used as an indicator of a company’s profitability, and may also be referred as “operating earnings,” “operating profit,” “profit before interest and taxes (PBIT),” or “operating income.”

45. ROA: Return on assets. This measure is often used to analyze profitability relative to assets.

46. ROCE: Return on capital employed. ROCE is a financial ratio that tells you what profits or returns a business has made on the capital available to it (in other words, how efficiently it uses its capital).

47. ROE: Return on equity. ROE measures a company’s profitability from the money that shareholders have invested in it.>

48. ROI: Return on investment – the gains you’ve made relative to what you’ve put in.

49. ROC/ROIC: Return on capital/Return on invested capital. This is a ratio used to assess the profitability of a company after taking into account the initial amount of capital that will need to be invested in it. It is often used by companies to assess the attractiveness of an investment or acquisition opportunity.

50. P&L: Profit and loss. A P&L statement (also known as an income statement) is the financial balance sheet used by companies to summarize their revenues, costs and expenses during a specific period of time.

51. CAPEX: Capital expenditure. CAPEX refers to the funds used by an organization to acquire or upgrade physical assets, such as buildings or equipment.

52. CAGR: Compound annual growth rate. This measures return on investment over a certain period of time (usually years) and provides a constant rate of return for that period.

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