Abbreviations for organizations and other common terms

Many familiar abbreviations, capitalized and written without periods, are acceptable in formal writing.

Initialisms are abbreviations formed from the first letters of words (MLB, HTTP); acronyms are initialisms that can be pronounced as words (NATO, AIDS).

Organizations

NATO, CIA, FBI, AFL-CIO, NAACP, IBM, UPI, MLA, APA

Technical terms

CD-ROM, OCR, WORM, XHTML, LED, PDF

Scientific terms

MMRI, HPLC, MCSGP, ATP, NADH

Television and radio stations

CBS, MSNBC, KTWO, WABC-TV

Miscellaneous terms

IOU, ESL

Style note: Acronyms and initialisms

Exercises:

Abbreviations 1

Abbreviations 2

Related topic:

Capitalizing abbreviations