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Home Grammar Spelling Abbreviations

Abbreviations

People are often unsure about how to write abbreviations. The main areas of uncertainty are:

  • whether to write abbreviations with capital letters
  • whether to use full stops
  • when to use apostrophes.

Here’s a quick-reference guide to help you get it right.

There are several kinds of abbreviation: the way an abbreviation is written usually depends on the category to which it belongs. The categories are listed below – click on the links to find out more:

How to punctuate shortenings/shortened words

Some shortenings – like bike for bicycle, or blog for weblog – are common and accepted parts of the English language. How should you punctuate them?

How to use contractions

From Dr to shouldn’t: some everyday contractions and how to punctuate them.

What Are Initialisms?

Initialisms are an integral part of the English language. Find out what they are, and how their usage might differ between British and American English.

What is an acronym?

What is an acronym and how should it be written? Find out with our guide.

See more from Spelling
Word of the day
pungle

/ ˈpʌŋɡl /

verb

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