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From my understanding, the dot "." standing behind a word means abbreviation. For example, "e.g." stands for "exempli gratia".

So, I think if we want to write the abbreviation for "the United States", we should use "the U.S.". But I saw that some paper using "the US" rather than "the U.S." A quick search in Google Scholar

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Could you please explain to me this confusion?

Phil Nguyen
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    It is only confusing because you think there is a "rule" - there are no "rules" in English there is only guidance. It does not matter which you use. Whichever you use, you should use it consistently. – Greybeard Aug 13 '21 at 12:00
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    You hardly ever see the dots in this country. – Hot Licks Aug 13 '21 at 12:25
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    Different style guides specify different rules. And within a given style, different words are punctuated and others not. NYT and WaPo (2 American newspapers) have consistently 'U.S." even in headlines, but 'WHO'. Other papers use 'US'. I agree 'U.S.' is clunky and hard to write and frankly I'm surprised that anybody, formal or not, bothers with that. IN other words, 'US' is not at all wrong and is preferred for many styles, just not NYT. – Mitch Aug 13 '21 at 12:50
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    @Mitch I got the point now. – Phil Nguyen Aug 13 '21 at 12:55
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    For a different but curious period controversy, see Harry S(.) Truman. I believe this issue came up again when an aircraft carrier was named after him. – DjinTonic Aug 13 '21 at 13:38

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