English Language Learners Stack Exchange
English Language Learners Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [abbreviations]

For questions about the shortened forms of words or phrases.

Abbreviations are shortened forms of words, or phrases.

In strict analysis, the difference between abbreviation, and contraction is the following:

  • An abbreviation may be made by omitting certain portions from the interior or by cutting off a part

  • A contraction of a word is made by omitting certain letters or syllables and bringing together the first and last letters or elements

A contraction is an abbreviation, but an abbreviation is not necessarily a contraction.

Related/other tags

174 questions
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If a sentence ends with an abbreviation (e.g. "[...] he lived in the U.S."), does that mean "U.S" is a correct abbreviation?

I came across the sentence "He visited Chicago many times when he lived in the U.S.", and seemingly the last period is for the ending of the sentence. So is "U.S" a correct abbreviation? This is a sentence from an exam question and I am a bit too…
Taro
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Is there a short form for “somewhere”?

I had look through the dictionary and found there are short form for “somebody” and “something”, which are “SB” and “sth”. However I couldn’t find a short form for “somewhere”. Is there a short form for “somewhere”?
Sophia Lau
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Which one is correct: Id or ID?

I find the people using both: "Id" and "ID" I do not know which one is correct. To me, the 1st one ("Id") is correct, as "Id" and "ID" are abbreviations of "identifier". The correct one is "Id". "ID" appears to be an acronym of two words, though…
Kirti
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What's the abbreviation for "elder" in American English?

I know that "Jackson jr." means Jackson the junior, but what about Jackson the elder? How do they abbreviate "elder" in American English?
brilliant
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English abbreviation : they're or they're not

Are they here yet? a. No, they're not. b. Yes, they're. I was told the answer is a. Why is it not b?
Muuu Mu
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6
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What does P.P.A. mean?

I'm reading a book called Introduction to Algorithms, Fourth Edition, and I'd like to know what does the abbreviation "P.P.A." mean in the paragraph below?: Julie Sussman, P.P.A., came to our rescue once again with her technical copy-editing under…
Jorge Luiz
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5
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What does 'em abbreviation mean?

I saw a phrase of the song of LP which contains 'em So smoke 'em if you got 'em Cause it's going down All I ever wanted was you Lost on you - LP- lyrics
Virtuous Legend
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Why is air conditioning often referred to as A/C? Why the slash?

I don't understand why it's A/C, what's the purpose of the slash? Are there other examples of the same usage?
G. Cheng
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4
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Long form of "typo"

The definition of typo, according to Cambridge Dictionary: a small mistake in a text made when it was typed or printed Can anyone tell me the long form of typo?
user153201
3
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"BC" (Before Christ) placed before the date to which it is referred to

BC, Function: abbreviation, 1 before Christ —often printed in small capitals and often punctuated (Merriam Webster Dictionary) Searching on Google Books I verified, or, at least, I perceived the idea, that the cases in which "BC" came before the…
user114
3
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cf. figure 8: good or bad?

I would like to use the abbreviation cf. to mean see, like I do all the time when writing in French. E.g. "cf. figure 8" would mean "see/refer to/check out figure 8". I read on Wikipedia that While the use of cf. for "see" is widespread, The…
Franck Dernoncourt
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What do the letters Dx - of diagnosis- stand for?

I always see the letters Dx as the abbreviation of diagnosis, but I never understand how does this letter relate to the word diagnosis which doesn't contain the letter x. Therefore my question is What do these two letters (Dx) stand for? An…
Virtuous Legend
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How to capitalize (or not) an abbreviation, is there any rule?

Reading this article I was quite puzzled about the way the author capitalized or not the abbreviations. When writing in full: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number All words are capitalized, but when abbreviating only the first…
Lucian Sava
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Is it okay to use IS like this in informal writing?

Ronnie's a bad influence on her. Keep him away. Can we use an apostrophe and "S" to say is at the end of a name to say somebody is when writing informally?
Soumya Ghosh
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How should I write the abbreviation for "okay"? (ok, Ok, OK)

How should I write abbreviation for "okay"? The options are: ok, Ok, OK. I've never took any notice of it, but recently someone (that he's not a native English speaker) told me that I should write OK. Is that true?
Virtuous Legend
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