CAT
Abbreviation with 5 meanings
| Stands for | Common Admission Test |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 5 |
| Categories | Education & Academia, Medical, Units & Measurements, Business & Finance |
CAT has five meanings. The most common are Common Admission Test (standardized test) and Cancer-associated thrombosis (hematology and oncology); it can also stand for Central Africa Time, Catastrophe and Computerized adaptive testing.
Meanings of CAT at a glance
| # | CAT stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Common Admission Test | Education & Academia › Standardized Test |
| 2 | Cancer-associated thrombosis | Medical › Hematology and Oncology |
| 3 | Central Africa Time | Units & Measurements › Time Zone |
| 4 | Catastrophe | Business & Finance › Insurance |
| 5 | Computerized adaptive testing | Education & Academia › Standardized Test |
1. Common Admission Test
Education & Academia · Standardized Test Abbreviations
Computer-based entrance exam conducted each November by one of the Indian Institutes of Management for admission to IIM MBA programs and hundreds of other Indian business schools. It tests verbal ability and reading comprehension, data interpretation and logical reasoning, and quantitative ability, with results reported as percentiles.
Example: She scored in the 99.5th percentile on the CAT and converted an interview call from IIM Ahmedabad.
Roughly three lakh (300,000) candidates register in a typical year, making a 99th percentile score highly competitive. The IIMs take turns administering the exam. Final admission also depends on academic record, work experience, written ability tests and interviews.
2. Cancer-associated thrombosis
Medical · Hematology and Oncology Abbreviations
Venous or arterial blood clots occurring in people with active cancer, which raises clotting risk through tumor products, chemotherapy, surgery, central lines and immobility. Pancreatic, stomach, lung and brain cancers carry particularly high risk.
Example: CAT: right arm DVT around a port in a patient with pancreatic cancer; apixaban started.
Low-molecular-weight heparin was long the standard after the CLOT trial (2003), and later trials such as Caravaggio (2020) established direct oral anticoagulants like apixaban as alternatives, with attention to bleeding risk in gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers. The Khorana score predicts clot risk in patients starting chemotherapy. Trousseau syndrome describes migratory clots linked to hidden cancer.
3. Central Africa Time
Units & Measurements · Time Zone Abbreviations
Two hours ahead of UTC year-round, Central Africa Time is used in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Rwanda, Burundi, Namibia, Sudan, South Sudan and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Example: The Lusaka meeting starts at 09:00 CAT.
CAT has the same offset as South African Standard Time, so Harare and Johannesburg share clock time. Namibia moved to CAT permanently in 2017, ending its winter time arrangement, and Sudan (2017) and South Sudan (2021) shifted from UTC+3 to CAT.
4. Catastrophe
Business & Finance · Insurance Abbreviations
Insurance industry term for an event, such as a hurricane, wildfire, earthquake or severe convective storm, that causes very large insured losses affecting many policyholders.
Example: The CAT team deployed adjusters to Florida the day after landfall.
In the US, Verisk's Property Claim Services assigns catastrophe serial numbers to events causing at least $25 million in insured property losses. Catastrophe models estimate potential losses and drive reinsurance buying. Insurers often set separate CAT deductibles for hurricanes and named storms.
5. Computerized adaptive testing
Education & Academia · Standardized Test Abbreviations
Test design in which the computer chooses each question, or each block of questions, based on the test taker's previous answers, so strong performers quickly receive harder items. The NCLEX, GMAT, GRE and digital SAT all use forms of adaptive testing to measure ability with fewer questions.
Example: Because the NCLEX uses CAT, the exam can end anywhere between 85 and 150 questions.
Item-level adaptive tests such as the NCLEX select one question at a time, while multistage tests such as the digital SAT and GRE adapt between sections or modules. Adaptive formats usually prevent returning to earlier answers, though the GMAT Focus allows limited review. The method relies on item response theory to place everyone on a common scale.
Related abbreviations
More standardized test abbreviations
- BMAT – BioMedical Admissions Test
- CAASPP – California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress
- CAE – Certificate in Advanced English
- CASPer – Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics
- CBEST – California Basic Educational Skills Test
- CBSE – Central Board of Secondary Education
- CEFR – Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
- CLEP – College-Level Examination Program
See all 106 standardized test abbreviations →
More hematology and oncology abbreviations
- CA 19-9 – Carbohydrate antigen 19-9
- CA-125 – Cancer antigen 125
- CAPOX – Capecitabine and oxaliplatin
- CAR-T – Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy
- CEA – Carcinoembryonic antigen
- chemo – Chemotherapy
- CHOP – Cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin (doxorubicin), Oncovin…
- CLL – Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
See all 144 hematology and oncology abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.