Calif.

Geography & Places abbreviation · US State Traditional

Calif. stands for California, a US state traditional abbreviation.

AP and Government Publishing Office abbreviation for California, seen in datelines (OAKLAND, Calif.), in political labels such as D-Calif., and throughout older atlases, catalogs and reference works. It is the form most American readers recognize in print after the postal code CA.

Example: The House member, D-Calif., introduced the wildfire funding bill on Monday.

Usage notes

Calif. never goes on envelopes; CA has been the postal standard since 1963 and is what address-validation software expects. The informal clipping Cali is common in speech and song lyrics but disliked by many Californians and avoided in edited writing. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco stand alone in AP datelines.

Related abbreviations

More US state traditional abbreviations

• Ala. – Alabama
• Ariz. – Arizona
• Ark. – Arkansas
• Cal. – California
• Colo. – Colorado
• Conn. – Connecticut
• Del. – Delaware
• Fla. – Florida
• Ill. – Illinois
• Ind. – Indiana
• Kan. – Kansas
• Kans. – Kansas

See all 36 US state traditional abbreviations →

Edited by the AbbreviationList.com team. Spotted an error or a missing meaning? Contact us.