2D 2-Dimensional 3D 3-Dimensional

3D 3-Dimensional

3M Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing

4GL Fourth Generation Language

4H Head, Heart, Hands, Health

4WD Four wheel Drive (see also FWD)

A Aftermath

AA Affirmative Action committee

AA Alcoholics Anonymous

AA Antiaircraft Artillery

AA Associate in Accounting

A&A Astronomy and Astrophysics [Space]

AA Automobile Association [England]

AAA American Automobile Association

AAAL American Academy of Arts and Letters

AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science

AAII American Association of Individual Investors

AAMSI American Association for Medical Systems Informatics

AAO Anglo-Australian Observatory [Space]

AAP Affirmative Action Program

AARC Anglo-American Cataloging Rules

AARN Australian Academic Research Network [Networking]

AARP American Association of Retired Persons

AAS American Astronomical Society [Space]

AAVSO American Association of Variable Star Observers [Space]

AB ABle seaman

ABA American Bar Association

ABA American Basketball Association

ABA American Booksellers Association

ABBR ABBReviation

ABC American Broadcasting Company [Corporate name]

AC Alternating Current (ac, see also DC)

AC Ante Christum (before Christ)

AC Ante Cibum (before meals)

ACAA Agricultural Conservation and Adjustment Administration

ACAWS Advisory, Caution, And Warning System

ACBL American Contract Bridge League

ACC Argonne Code Center

ACCS Army Command and Control System

ACD Automatic Call Distributor [Telephony]

ACE Advanced Composition Explorer [Space]

ACE Advanced Computing Environments [Corporate name]

ACE Automatic Calibration and Equalization

ACHEFT Automated ClearingHouse Electronic Funds Transfer

ACK ACKnowledge

ACL Advanced Cmos Logic

ACLU American Civil Liberties Union

ACM Association for Computing Machinery

ACRV Assured Crew Return Vehicle (or) Astronaut Crew Rescue Vehicle [Space]

ACS Advanced Communications System

ACSE Association Control Service Entity (ISO/CCITT layer 7)

ACT Action for Children's Television (in Cambridge, MA)

ACT American Conservatory Theater

ACTS Advanced Communications Technology Satellite

ACTS Automatic Coin Telephone Service [Telephony]

ACU Alarm Control Unit

ACU Automatic Call Unit [Telephony]

ACW Alternating Continuous Waves

AD After Date

A/D Analog to Digital converter (see ADC)

AD Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord)

AD Application Development

Ad Astra To the stars [Latin, Space]

ADAP Alzheimer's disease-associated protein

ADAP American Discount Auto Parts [Corporate name]

ADB A DeBugger

ADB Apple Desktop Bus

ADC Analog to Digital Converter

ADCI Automatic Display Call Indicator

AD&D Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

ADF Automatic Direction Finder

ADM ADMiral

ADP Adenosine Di-Phosphate

ADP Administrative Data Processing

ADP Advanced Data Processing

ADPCM Pulse Code Modulation with Adaptive Quantization

ADS Application Development System

ADSR Attack Decay Sustain Release

ADT Abstract Data Type

ADT Atlantic Daylight Time

AE Application Execution

AEA American Electronics Association

AEC Atomic Energy Commission

AEF American Expeditionary Force (see BEF)

AEGIS Advanced Electronic Guidance and Instrumentation System

AF Adventures in Fantasy

AF Air Force

AF Audio Frequency

AFADS Automatic Force Adjustment Data System

AFATDS Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System

AFB Air Force Base

AFC American Football Conference

AFC Automatic Flight Control

AFC Automatic Frequency Control

AFCAC Air Force Computer Acquisition Center

AFCC Air Force Communications Command

AFGE American Federation of Government Employees

AFIPS American Federation of Information Processing Societies

AFL American Federation of Labor

AFL American Football League

AFLCIO American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

AFNOR Association Francaise de NORmalization

AFP Appletalk Filing Protocol

AFS Andrew File System

AFSC Air Force Systems Command

AFSCME American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

AFTRA American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

AG Adjutant General

AG Arcade Game

AG Attorney General

AGCT Army General Classification Test

AGN Active Galactic Nucleus [Space]

AHL American Hockey League

AHQ Air HeadQuarters

AI Artificial Intelligence

AIAA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics [Space]

AIC Automatic Intercept Center

AID Agency for International Development

AIDDE Ames' Interactive Dynamic Display Editor

AIDS Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome

AIOD Automatic Identification Outward Dialing

AIS Automatic Intercept System

AIX Advanced Interactive eXecutive (IBM's name for UNIX)

AJ Astronomical Journal [Space]

AK Alaska

AKA Also Known As

AL Alabama [US state postal designation]

AL American League (baseball)

ALA American Library Association

ALA Automobile Legal Association

ALBM Air-to-Land Ballistic Missile

ALC Automatic Load Control

ALGOL ALGOrithmic Language

ALIT Automatic Line Insulation Testing [Telephony]

ALPO Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers [Space]

ALS Advanced Launch System [Space]

ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit

A&M Agricultural and Mechanical

AM Amplitude Modulation

AM Ante Meridiem (before noon)

AMA American Medical Association

AMA Automatic Message Accounting [Telephony]

AMARC Automatic Message Accounting Recording Center

AMBA Association of Master of Business Administration

AMC Albany Medical College

AMC American Motors Corporation(?) [Corporate name]

AMC Appalachian Mountain Club

AMD Advanced Micro Devices [Corporate name]

AMEX AMerican EXpress [Corporate name]

AMI Alternate Mark Inversion (see also NRZ, NRZI, B8ZS)

AMORC Ancient Mystic Order Rosae Crucis

AMP Adenosine MonoPhosphate

AMPAS Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

AMPAS Acedemy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

AMRAAM Advanced Medium Range Air-To-Air Missile

AMROC American Rocket Company [Space]

AMSAT radio AMateur SATellite corp.

AMU Atomic Mass Unit

AMVET AMerican VETeran

ANA American Nurses Association

ANAC Automatic Number Announcemnt Circuit [Telephony]

ANC All Number Calling [Telephony]

ANC Army Nurse Corps

ANDF Architecture-Neural Distribution Format

ANF Automatic Number Forwarding [Telephony]

ANG Air National Guard

ANI Automatic Number Identification (see also: CLID) [Telephony]

ANL Argonne National Laboratory

ANOVA ANalysis Of VAriance

ANPA American Newspaper Publishers Association

ANSI American National Standards Institute

ANZUS Australia, New Zealand, United States

AO Account Of

AOA Abort Once Around [NASA, Shuttle]

AOA Abort Once Around (Shuttle abort plan) [Space]

AOL Absent Over Leave (see AWOL)

AOS Academic Operating System

AOS Alternate Operator Service [Telephony]

A/P Accounts Payable

AP Additional Premium

AP All Points

AP Associated Press [Corporate name]

APA All Points Addressable

APA American Psychological Association

APB All Points Bulletin

APDA Apple Programmers and Developers Association

API Application Programming Interface

APICS American Production and Inventory Control Society

Ap.J Astrophysical Journal [Space]

APL A Programming Language

APL acute promyelocytic leukemia [Disease]

APO Alpha Phi Omega, service fraternity

APO Army Post Office

APP Applications Portability Profile

APPC Advanced Peer-to-Peer Communications

APR Annual Percentage Rate (as in loan interest)

APSE Ada Programming Support Environment

APU Auxiliary Power Unit [Space]

AQ Accumulator-Quotient register

A/R Accounts Receivable

AR Address Register

AR Arkansas

ARC AIDS-related complex

ARC American Red Cross

ARC Ames Research Center (NASA) [Space]

ARCNET Attached Resource Computer local area NETwork

ARO After Receipt of Order

ARP Address Resolution Protocol

ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency (of the DoD, see DARPA)

ARPANET ARPA (q.v.) NETwork

ARRL Amateur Radio Relay League

ARV American Revised Version

AS Anglo-Saxon

ASA Acetyl Salicylic Acid

ASAP As Soon As Possible

ASC Accredited Standards Committee

ASCAP American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers

ASCC Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASDIC Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (British for sonar)

ASDSP Application-Specific Digital Signal Processor

ASG Automated Sciences Group

ASHRAE Amer. Soc. of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-cond. Engineers, inc.

ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers

ASN Abstract Syntax Notation One (ISO/CCITT ASN.1)

ASP Aggregated Switch Procurement

ASRM Advanced Solid Rocket Motor [Space]

ASSR Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

AST Atlantic Standard Time

ASV American Standard Version

AT Atlantic Time

ATA Automatic Trouble Analysis

ATACC Advanced Tactical Air Command Central

ATB Advanced Technology Bomber (stealth bomber)

ATC Air Traffic Control

ATDRS Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite [Space]

ATF Advanced Technology Fighter

ATIS Atherton Tools Interface Specification

ATLAS Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science [Space]

ATM Amateur Telescope Maker [Space]

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode

ATM Automatic Teller Machine

ATO Abort To Orbit [NASA, Shuttle]

ATO Abort To Orbit (Shuttle abort plan) [Space]

ATOMS AT&t Optimized Materials Simulator

ATP Adenosine TriPhosphate

ATPCO Airline Tariff Publishing COmpany

AT&T American Telephone & Telegraph [Corporate name]

ATT American Telephone & Telegraph (normally written AT&T when seperate)

ATTIS American Telephone and Telegraph Information Systems [AT&T] (Division)

ATV All Terrain Vehicle

AU Astronomical Unit (93,000,000 miles) [Space]

AU Astronomical Unit [Space]

AUI Attachment Universal Interface

AURA Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy [Space]

AUS Army of the United States

AUTODIN AUTOmatic DIgital Network

AUTOVON AUTOmatic VOice Network

AV AudioVisual

AVLIS Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation

AWACS Airborne Warnings And Control Systems

AWEA American Wind Energy Association

AWK al Aho, peter Weinberger, brian Kernighan (pattern scanning language)

AWOL Absent WithOut Leave (also Absent Without Official Leave) (see AOL)

AW&ST Aviation Week and Space Technology (a.k.a. AvLeak) [Space]

AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility [Space]

AZ Arizona

B Book

B8ZS Binary 8 Zero Substitution (see also NRZ, NRZI, AMI)

BACH Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp

BAFO Best And Final Offer

BARRNet Bay Area Regional Research Network (SF Bay Area)

BASIC Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

BATSE Burst And Transient Source Experiment (on GRO) [Space]

BB Bases on Balls

BB Best of Breed

BB Bunnies and Burrows

BBA Bachelor of Business Administration

BBB Better Business Bureau

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BBL Barrel

BBN Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc. [Corporate name]

BBXRT Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope (ASTRO package) [Space]

BC Battlecars

BC Before Christ

BC British Columbia

BC/BS Blue Cross/Blue Shield

BCD Bad Conduct Discharge

BCD Binary Coded Decimal

BCDIC Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

BCE Before the Common Era (substitute for BC)

BCNU Be Seeing You [Net jargon]

BCP Byte Controlled Protocols

BCPL Basic Combined Programming Language

BCS Bachelor of Commercial Science

BCS Binary Compatibility Standard

BCS Boston Computer Society

BCS British Computer Society

BD Bachelor of Divinity

BD Bank Draft

BD Bills Discounted

BD&D Basic Dungeons & Dragons

BDF Binary Distribution Format

BDT Billing Data Transmitter

BE Bill of Exchange

BEF British Expeditionary Force (see AEF)

BELCORE BELL COmmunications REsearch

BEM Bug Eyed Monster

BEM Bug-Eyed Monster [Space]

BENELUX BElgium, NEtherlands, and LUXembourg

BER Bit Error Rate

BERT Bit Error Rate Test

BEST Borland Enhanced Support and Training

BF Brought Forward

BFA Bachelor of Fine Arts

BFD Bristol (RI) Fire Department (probably typical of any town starting "B")

BH Black Hole [Space]

BH Boot Hill

BHP Brake HorsePower

BICS Building Industry Consulting Services [Telephony]

BID Bis In Die (twice a day)

BIMA Berkeley Illinois Maryland Array [Space]

BIOS Basic Input Output System

BIS Business Information System

BISDN Broadband ISDN (q.v.) [Telephony]

BiSync Binary Synchronous Communications (BSC is preferred) [IBM]

Bit BInary digiT

BITNET Because It's Time Network

BLAST BLocked ASynchronous Transmission

BLERT BLock Error Rate Test

BLF Busy Lamp Field [Telephony]

BLT Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato (sandwich)

BLT BLock Transfer [Instruction]

BLT Branch Less Than [Instruction]

BM Basal Metabolism

BM Bowel Movement

BMA Bank Marketing Association

BMEWS Ballistic Missile Early Warning

BMO Ballistic Missile Office

BMOC Big Man On Campus

BMR Basal Metabolism Rate

BNC Bayonet Neill Concelman (connector) [Electronics] (see also TNC)

BNF Bachus-Naur Form

BO Body Odor

BO Branch Office

BO Buyer's Option

BOC Bell Operating Company

BOD Board Of Directors

BOF Birds Of a Feather

BOM Bill Of Materials

BOOTP Bootstrap Protocol [Internet]

BOQ Bachelor Officers' Quarters

BOS Business Office Supervisor

BOSIX Biin Open System Interface eXtension

BP Blood Pressure

BP British Petroleum

BP British Pharmacopoeia

BPI Bits Per Inch

BPL Boston Public Library

BPL Branch if PLus [Instruction]

BPOE Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks

BPS Bits Per Second

BR Bills Receivable

BR British Rail

BRA Boston Redevelopment Authority

BRI Basic Rate Interface (ISDN) [Telephony]

BRIEF Basic Reconfigurable Interactive Editing Facility

BRL army Ballistic Research Laboratory

BRS Bibliographic Retrieval Service

BS Bachelor of Science

BS Bill of Sale

BSA Birmingham Small Arms

BSA Boy Scouts of America

BSc Bachelor of SCience

BSC Binary Synchronous Communications (also sometimes BiSync) [IBM]

BSD Berkeley Software Distribution

BSN Bachelor of Science in Nursing

BSS Block Started by Symbol

BSTJ Bell System Technical Journal

BT British Telecom

BTAM Basic Telecommunications Access Method [IBM]

BThU British Thermal Unit (BTU {q.v.} is preferred)

BTL Bell Telephone Laboratories

BTO Bachman Turner Overdrive

BTU British Thermal Unit

BTW By The Way [Net jargon]

BU Boston University

BUF B-52 bomber ("Big Ugly Fellow") [USAF]

BV Blessed Virgin

BWI Baltimore-Washington International (airport)

BWI British West Indies

BX Base eXchange (see also PX)

c centi- (metric 1/100)

C programming language (successor to B, which was based on BCPL)

CA California

CA Chartered Accountant

CA Chief Accountant

CA Chronological Age

CA Collision Avoidance (as in CSMA/CA (q.v.))

CAB Civil Aeronautics Board

CACM Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery

CAD Computer Aided Design (sometimes seen as CAD/CAM)

CAD Computer Aided Dispatching

CAE Common Applications Environment

CAE Computer Aided Engineering

CAI Computer Aided Instruction

CAIS Common Apse Interface Specification

CALS Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support

CAM Computer Aided Management

CAM Computer Aided Manufacturing (sometimes seen as CAD/CAM)

CAM Content Addressable Memory

CAMA Centralized Automatic Message Accounting [Telephony]

CAMP Campaign Against Marijuana Planting

CAP Civil Air Patrol

CAP Columbia Appletalk Package

CAR Contents of the Address part of the Register (LISP)

CARE Committee on American Relief in Europe

CARP California Air Resources Board

CASE Computer Aided Software Engineering

CASSIS Classification and Search Support Information System

CAT Computer-Aided Tomography

CATIS Common Applications and Tools Integration Services

CATV Common Antenna TeleVision

CATV Community Antenna TeleVision

CAVU Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited

CB Citizens Band radio

CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

CBD Cash Before Delivery

CBD Commerce Business Daily

CBEMA Computer & Business Equipment Manufacturers Association

CBR Chemical, Biological, Radiological warfare

CBS Columbia Broadcasting System [Corporate name]

CBW Chemical and Biological Warfare

CC C (language) Compiler

CC Carbon Copy

CCA Computer Corporation of America [Corporate name]

CCAFS Cape Canaveral Air Force Station [Space]

CCC Canadian Committee on Cataloging

CCC Civil(ian) Conservation Corps

CCC Command, Control, and Communications (sometimes C^3)

CCC Concourse Computer Center [MIT]

CCCCM CCC CounterMeasures (sometimes C^3CM)

CCCI Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence

CCD Charge Coupled Device (see CID)

CCD Charge-Coupled Device [Space]

CCDS Centers for the Commercial Development of Space [Space]

CCF Hundred Cubic Feet

CCI Computer Carrier Interrupt

CCI Computer Consoles, Incorporated

CCIP Continuously Computed Impact Point

CCIRN Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networking

CCIS Common Channel Interoffice Signaling [Telephony]

CCITT Comite' Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique

CCITT Consultative Committee on International Telephony and Telegraphy

CCITT International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee

CCR Commitment, Concurrency, and Recovery

CCR Creedence Clearwater Revival [Music]

CCRI Community College of Rhode Island [Corporate name]

CCRP Continuously Computed Release Point

CCS Hundred Call Seconds [Telephony]

CCS7 Common Channel Signalling (version #7) [Telephony, AT&T]

CCSA Common Control Switching Arrangement [Telephony]

CCTA Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency

CCTV Closed Circuit TeleVision

CD Carrier Detect (properly DCD (q.v.)) (EIA RS-232-C)

CD Certificate of Deposit

CD Civil Defense

CD Collision Detection (as in CSMA/CD (q.v.))

CD Compact Disk

CDA Call Data Accumulator

CDA Compound Documents Architecture

CDC Centers for Disease Control

CDC Control Data Corporation, Inc. [Corporate name]

CDEV Control panel DEVice

CDIAC Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center

CDO Community Dial Office

CDR CommanDeR

CDR Contents of the Decrement part of the Register (LISP)

CD-ROM Compact Disk Read Only Memory

CD-ROM Compact Disk Read-Only Memory [Space]

CDSF Commercially Developed Space Facility

CDT Central Daylight Time

CDU Control Display Unit

CE Chemical Engineer

CE Civil Engineer

CE Common Era (substitute for AD)

CE Corps of Engineers

CE Customer Engineer (see also FE, SE)

CEA Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (Frenc Atomic Energy Commision)

CEA Council of Economic Advisors

CEA County Education Authority

CEC Commission of the European Communities

CED Committee for Economic Development

CELSS Controlled Ecological Life Support System [Space]

CENS Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Seclay

CENTO CENtral Treaty Organization

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CERFnet California Education and Research Federation Network

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research

CERN organisation (formerly Conseil) Europeenne pour la Recherche Nucleaires

CERT Computer Emergency Response Team

CEVI Common Equipment Voltage Indicator

CF Carry Forward

CF Coin First (payphone) [Telephony]

CF Cystic Fibrosis [Disease]

CFA Center For Astrophysics [Space]

CFC Chloro-FluoroCarbon [Chemical]

CFC Combined Federal Campaign

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics

CFHT Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope [Space]

CFI Cost, Freight, and Insurance

CFL Canadian Football League

CFO Chief Financial Officer

CG Coast Guard

CG Commanding General

CGA Color Graphics Adapter

CGCT Compagnie Generale de Constructions Telephoniques

CG&E Cincinnati Gas & Electric

CGE Compagnie Generale d'Electricite

CH Cardboard Heroes

CH ClearingHouse

CH CourtHouse

CH Customs House

CHA Champions

CHAP CHAnnel Processor

CHARA Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy [Space]

CHI Chill: Adventures into the Unknown

CHOTS Corporate Headquarters Office Technology System

CHP California Highway Patrol

CI Cubic Inches

CIA Central Intelligence Agency [US Government]

CIA Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY)

CIC Carrier Identification Codes [Telephony] (10XXX codes)

CIC Committee on Institutional Cooperation

CIC Coordination and Information Center [CSNet]

CICA Competition in Contracting Act

CICS Customer Information Control System [IBM]

CID Caller ID [Telephony] (see also: CLID, ANI)

CID Central Institute for the Deaf

CID Charge Injection Device (see CCD)

CID Computer Integrated Design

CIDIN Common Icao Data Interchange Network

CIM Computer Integrated Manufacturing

CIO Chief Information Officer

CIRRIS Cryogenic InfraRed Radiance Instrument for Shuttle [Space]

CISC Complex Instruction Set Computer

Cislunar The space between the Earth and the Moon

CIT California Institute of Technology

CIT Case Institute of Technology (part of CWRU, Cleveland, OH)