List Of Acronyms And Initialisms

This list contains acronyms, initialisms, and pseudo-blends. For the purposes of this list:
  • acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as a series of constituent letters
  • initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters
  • pseudo-blend = an abbreviation whose extra or omitted letters means that it cannot stand as a true acronym, initialism, or portmanteau (a word formed by combining two or more words).
(a) = acronym in the example: SARS - (a) Severe acute respiratory syndrome
(i) = initialism in the example: CD - (i) Compact disc
(p) = pseudo-blend in the example: UNIFEM - (p) United Nations Development Fund for Women
(s) = symbol (none of the above, representing and pronounced as something else; for example: MHz - Megahertz)

Add new entries here or in the sub-pages

Because of the list's size, acronyms and initialisms beginning with certain characters appear in separate articles. Please add your own entries, in this page or in the appropriate sub-page. Use a quasi-dictionary order, with lowercase treated the same as uppercase and ignoring non-alphanumeric characters (hyphens and such). This means that only alphanumeric characters have any significance in determining order, and that lowercase letters occupy the same ordering position as uppercase (in tie-breaker cases, list lower case first). For example: Algol appears before ALS. (This differs from a strict ASCII ordering)

Non-alphabetic

0-9

  • 2D - (i) Two-Dimensional
  • 2.5D - (p) "Two-and-a-half-dee": two-dimensional computer graphics imitating 3D
  • 2G - (i) Second-generation mobile (cellular, wireless) telephone system
  • 2.5G - (p) Second-and-a-half-generation mobile telephone system
  • 3D - (i) Three-dimensional
  • 3G - (i) Third-generation mobile telephone system
  • 3M - (i) Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
  • 4D - (i) Four-dimensional (usually three spatial plus one temporal dimension, sometimes 4 spatial ones)
  • 4G - (i) Fourth-generation mobile telephone system
  • 4GL - (i) Fourth-generation programming language
  • 4WD - (i) Four Wheel Drive (cf. AWD)

A

See

B

See

C

See

D

See

E

See

F

See

G

See

H

See

I

See

J

  • J - (s) Joule
  • J1 - (s) Joint Personnel Directorate
  • J2 - (s) Joint Intelligence Directorate
  • J3 - (s) Joint Operations Directorate
  • J4 - (s) Joint Logistics Directorate
  • J5 - (s) Joint Public Affairs Directorate
  • J6 - (s) Joint Information Technology Directorate

JA-JL

  • JA - (s) Japan (NATO country code)
  • JAG - (a) Judge Advocate General (military law)
  • JAL - (p) Japan Airlines
  • JAM - (s) Jamaica (ISO 3166 trigram)
  • JAMA - (i) Journal of the American Medical Association
  • JATO - (a) Jet Assisted TakeOff
  • JCDB - (i) Joint Common Data Base
  • JCDS - (i) Joint Chiefs of the Defence Staff
  • JCL - (i) Job Control Language
  • JCS - (i) Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • JD - (i) Julian Day - juris doctor (Latin, "doctor of jurisprudence") - jurum doctor (Latin, "doctor of laws")
  • JDL - (i) Jewish Defense League
  • Jeb Bush - (a) John Ellis Bush
  • Jeb Stuart - (a) James Ewell Brown (Stuart's given names) Stuart
  • JEZ - (a) Joint Engagement Zone
  • JFACC - (i) Joint Force Air Component Commander
  • JFC - (i) Joint Force Commander
  • JFK - (i) John Fitzgerald Kennedy or the airport named after him.
  • JFLCC - (i) Joint Force Land Component Commander
  • JFMCC - (i) Joint Force Maritime Component Commander
  • JFSOCC - (i) Joint Force Special Operations Component Commander
  • JIB - (a) Joint Information Bureau
  • JIC - (a) Joint Intelligence Centre
  • JITC - (i) Joint Interoperability Test Command

JM-JZ

  • JM - (s) Jamaica (NATO country code; ISO 3166 digram)
  • JNLP - (i) Java Network Launch Protocol
  • JO - (s) Jordan (NATO country code; ISO 3166 digram)
  • JOA - (a/i) Joint Operations Area
  • JOPES - (a) Joint Operations Planning and Execution System
  • JOR - (s) Jordan (ISO 3166 trigram)
  • JOTS - (a) Joint Operations Tactical System
  • JP - (s) Japan (ISO 3166 digram)
  • JPEG - (a) Joint Photographic Experts Group ("djay-peg")
  • JPL - (i) Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • JPN - (s) Japan (ISO 3166 trigram)
  • JRA - (i) Japanese Red Army - Joint Rear Area
  • JSAF - (a) Joint Semi-Automated Forces ("djay-saff")
  • JSD - (i) juris scientiae doctor (Latin, "doctor of science of law")
  • JSEAD - (i) Joint Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (see SEAD)
  • JSOA - (i) Joint Special Operations Area
  • JSOTF - (i) Joint Special Operations Task Force
  • JSS - (i) Joint Support Ship
  • JSTARS - (p) Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System ("djay-starz")
  • JT - (s) Johnston Atoll (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1986)
  • JTAGS - (p) Joint Tactical Ground Station ("djay-tagz")
  • J-TENS - (a) Joint-Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities
  • JTF - (i) Joint Task Force
  • JTIDS - (p) Joint Tactical Information Distribution System ("djay-tidz")
  • JTMD - (i) Joint Theatre Missile Defence
  • JTN - (s) Johnston Atoll (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1986)
  • JTRS - (a/i) Joint Tactical Radio System ("jitters")
  • JW - (i) Jehovah's Witnesses
  • JZ - (i) Joint Zone

K

KA-KL

KM-KZ

L

See

M

See

N

See

O

See

P

See

Q

R

See

S

See

T

See

U

See

V

VA-VK

VL-VZ

W

See

X

  • Xe - (s) Xenon
  • XBML - (p) eXtensible Battle Management Language
  • XCBL - (i) XML Common Business Library
  • XHTML - (p) eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language
  • XML - (p) eXtensible Markup Language
  • XMSF - (p) eXtensible Modelling and Simulation Framework
  • XRML - (p) eXtensible Rights Markup Language
  • XSL - (p) eXtensible Style Language

Y

Z

Dubious entries

Words that may not qualify as acronyms, though (humorous) fake etymology claims them as such (some of these classify as backronyms):
  • Fuck - (a) Fornication under consent of the king - For unlawful carnal knowledge
  • Golf - (a) Gentlemen only, ladies forbidden
  • News - (a) North, east, west and south (a mnemonic)
  • Pom - (a) (Australian English) Prisoner of His Majesty
  • Posh - (a) Port out, starboard home
  • Rap - (a) Rhythm and poetry - Rhythmical African poetry - Rhythmic American Poetry
  • Tip - (a) To insure promptness - (plural) To insure prompt service

See also

External links

Acronyms and initialisms

 

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