Abbreviations and Acronyms

1. Initial Letter Abbreviations

We can make abbreviations from the first letters of many words, mostly with organization names.

See Abbreviation Rules for details.

Some Abbreviations

ABEDA	Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa
ACC	Arab Cooperation Council
ACCT	Agency for the French-Speaking Community
ACP Group	African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States
AfDB	African Development Bank
AFESD	Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development
CEI	Central European Initiative
CEMA	Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; also known as CMEA or Comecon
CEPGL	Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries
CERN	European Organization for Nuclear Research
CIA	Central Intelligence Agency
c.i.f.	cost, insurance, and freight
EU	European Union
Euratom	European Atomic Energy Community
Eutelsat	European Telecommunications Satellite Organization
Ex-Im	Export-Import Bank of the United States
FBI	Federal Bureau of Investigation
IBEC	International Bank for Economic Cooperation
IBRD	International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)
OAS	Organization of American States
OAU	Organization of African Unity
UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

When we need to use an article (a / an or the) we should pay attention to the pronunciation of the first letter of the abbreviation.

A Us citizen
An EU website
The UK

2. Acronyms

Some abbreviated letters that are pronounced like words are called acronyms.

For example:

The company name is called IKEA; it is read like any other word. It is never spelled out letter by letter: I - K- E- A.

ESL means English as a second language. - It is mostly used in American English.

EFL means English as a foreign language. - It is mostly used in British English.

ASAP (or A.S.A.P.) stands for "as soon as possible". We you use this abbreviation when we want someone to do something quickly: "Send me the report ASAP."

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