Grammar and Dictionary Abbreviations
93 abbreviations · part of Common Abbreviations
Dictionaries, grammars and language textbooks rely on compact labels: part-of-speech tags such as n., v., adj. and adv., usage and register labels such as colloq., obs. and derog., grammatical terms such as pl., pp. and nom., and etymology labels such as OE, Lat. and Gk. Conventions vary between publishers, so a label printed in full in one dictionary may be abbreviated in another, and the front matter of each dictionary lists the abbreviations it uses. Linguists use a further set of standardized labels (SG, NOM, NP, IPA) in academic description.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AAVE | African American Vernacular English | Names the variety of English spoken by many African Americans, with its own consistent grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. |
| abbr. | Abbreviation | Identifies an entry or form as an abbreviation in dictionaries, glossaries and style guides, usually followed by the full form. |
| abl. | Ablative | Labels the ablative case of Latin and some other languages, which expresses meanings such as "by," "with," "from" or "in" without a separate preposition. |
| acc. | Accusative | Marks the accusative case, the form used for the direct object of a verb and after certain prepositions in languages such as Latin, German and Russian. |
| adj. | Adjective | Marks a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, such as "red," "happy" or "enormous." It is among the most frequent part-of-speech labels in dictionaries… |
| adv. | Adverb | Labels a word that modifies a verb, adjective, other adverb or whole clause, expressing manner, time, place, degree or frequency, such as "quickly," "very" or "often." |
| AmE | American English | Labels the variety of English used in the United States, especially in linguistics, language teaching and comparisons with British English. |
| ant. | Antonym | Points to a word of opposite meaning, as given in dictionaries, thesauruses and vocabulary exercises. |
| arch. | Archaic | Labels a word or sense that is old-fashioned but still occasionally used for special effect, as in religious, literary or legal language; examples include "thou,"… |
| art. | Article | Abbreviation for an article of a constitution, treaty or uniform code in citations, as in "U.S. |
| attrib. | Attributive | Marks an adjective or noun that is used only, or mainly, before the noun it modifies, as with "main" in "the main reason" or "chief" in "chief engineer." Dictionaries… |
| Austral. | Australian | Labels a word or sense used chiefly in Australian English, such as "arvo" (afternoon), "ute" (pickup truck) or "doona" (comforter). |
| aux. | Auxiliary (verb) | Denotes a helping verb used with a main verb to form tenses, moods, voices and questions, such as "be," "have," "do," and modal verbs like "can" and "must." |
| BrE | British English | Labels the English of the United Kingdom, particularly of England, in linguistics, language teaching and dictionaries. |
| Brit. | British | Labels a word, sense or spelling used chiefly in British English, such as "lorry," "flat" for apartment or "colour." American dictionaries use it to flag terms an… |
| colloq. | Colloquial | Marks words and phrases typical of informal conversation rather than formal writing, such as "kids," "gonna" or "fed up." Dictionaries use the label to guide choices of… |
| compar. | Comparative | Marks the comparative form of an adjective or adverb, which compares two things, such as "taller," "better" or "more interesting." Dictionaries list irregular… |
| conj. | Conjunction | Labels a word that joins words, phrases or clauses, such as "and," "but," "because" or "although." Grammars distinguish coordinating conjunctions from subordinating ones. |
| contr. | Contraction | Labels a shortened form made by omitting letters or sounds, usually marked with an apostrophe, such as "can't," "it's" and "we'll." Dictionaries list contractions with… |
| dat. | Dative | Labels the dative case, used for the indirect object, the person to or for whom something is done, in languages such as Latin, German, Greek and Icelandic. |
| derog. | Derogatory | Warns that a word or sense expresses contempt or disapproval and may offend, as with many terms for groups of people. |
| det. | Determiner | Marks words that come before a noun to specify quantity, possession or definiteness, such as "this," "my," "some," "every" and the articles. |
| dial. | Dialect | Labels a word or sense used mainly in a regional or social variety of the language rather than in standard English, such as "youse" or "bairn." Some dictionaries name… |
| dim. | Diminutive | Marks a form that indicates smallness, youth or affection, usually built with a suffix such as -let, -ling, -ette or -ie, as in "booklet," "duckling" and "doggie." |
| esp. | Especially | Narrows a definition to its most typical use or context, as in "a large house, esp. one in the country." It is common in dictionary definitions, footnotes and… |
| etym. | Etymology | Heads the section of a dictionary entry that traces a word's origin and history, showing the languages and forms it passed through. |
| euph. | Euphemism | Marks a mild or indirect expression substituted for one considered harsh, blunt or embarrassing, such as "pass away" for "die." Dictionaries and usage guides label… |
| fem. | Feminine | Marks feminine grammatical gender or a female form of a word, such as "duchess" beside "duke." Dictionaries of gendered languages like French or Spanish apply a gender… |
| fig. | Figuratively | Marks a figurative sense of a word, one extended by metaphor from its literal meaning, as in "a mountain (fig.) of paperwork." Dictionaries list figurative senses after… |
| Fr. | French | Identifies French as the source language in etymologies, glossaries and bilingual references, as in "from Fr. ballet." Modern French loans often keep French spelling… |
| GA | General American | Names the range of American English accents without strong regional features, often heard in national broadcasting and used as the reference accent in American… |
| gen. | Genitive | Labels the genitive case, which expresses possession or relationship, roughly "of" in English. |
| Ger. | German | Identifies German as the source language in etymologies, glossaries and bilingual references, as in "from Ger. |
| Gk. | Greek | Labels Greek, usually Ancient Greek, as the source language of a word in etymologies and glossaries. |
| imper. | Imperative | Labels the imperative mood, the verb form used for commands, requests and instructions, such as "Sit down" or "Please call me." It appears in grammars, verb tables and… |
| indef. | Indefinite | Labels indefinite forms, most often in "indef. art." (the indefinite article "a" or "an") and "indef. pron." (indefinite pronouns such as "someone," "anything" and… |
| inf. | Infinitive | Grammatical label for the base form of a verb, often preceded by "to," as in "to run" or "to be." Grammars and language textbooks use it when describing verb patterns. |
| interj. | Interjection | Labels an exclamatory word or phrase that expresses emotion or reaction and stands apart grammatically from the rest of the sentence, such as "ouch," "wow" or "alas." |
| interrog. | Interrogative | Labels question words and forms, such as the interrogative pronouns "who," "what" and "which" and adverbs like "where" and "why." Grammars use it when describing how… |
| IPA | International Phonetic Alphabet | A standardized system of phonetic symbols representing the sounds of spoken language, used in dictionaries, language teaching, linguistics and speech therapy. |
| It. | Italian | Labels Italian as the source language in etymologies and glossaries. |
| joc. | Jocular | Indicates that a word or phrase is used humorously or playfully, often by exaggerating formality or by deliberate misuse. |
| Lat. | Latin | Identifies Latin as the source language of a word in etymologies and glossaries. |
| lit. | Literally | Introduces the literal translation or word-for-word meaning of a foreign phrase or idiom, as in "coup d'état (lit. 'blow of state')." Etymologies and glossaries use it… |
| masc. | Masculine | Indicates masculine grammatical gender or a male form of a word, such as Spanish "el libro" or English "widower." Bilingual dictionaries use it constantly for gendered… |
| ME | Middle English | Labels the form of English used from roughly 1100 to 1500, between Old English and Early Modern English. |
| n. | Noun | Labels a headword as a noun in dictionaries, glossaries and word lists, the part of speech that names a person, place, thing or idea. |
| neut. | Neuter | Labels neuter grammatical gender, the third gender found alongside masculine and feminine in languages such as German, Latin, Greek and Russian. |
| nom. | Nominative | Labels the nominative case, the form of a noun or pronoun used as the subject of a verb, in grammars of Latin, Greek, German and other inflected languages. |
| NP | Noun phrase | Denotes a phrase built around a noun or pronoun, including any determiners and modifiers, such as "the old wooden bridge." Syntax textbooks and parsing software use NP… |
| obj. | Object | Labels the object of a verb or preposition in grammar descriptions, the noun phrase that receives the action, as in "the ball" in "She kicked the ball." Grammars… |
| obs. | Obsolete | Marks a word or sense no longer in use, though readers may meet it in older texts. |
| occas. | Occasionally | Notes that a form, spelling or use appears now and then but is not the norm, as in "occas. spelled judgement." It is one of several frequency labels in dictionaries and… |
| OE | Old English | Names the earliest recorded form of English, spoken in England from about the 5th century to the 12th century and also called Anglo-Saxon. |
| OED | Oxford English Dictionary | The most comprehensive historical dictionary of English, published by Oxford University Press and covering some 500,000 words, senses and phrases with dated quotations. |
| OF | Old French | Identifies Old French, the French of roughly the 9th to 14th centuries, as the source of an English word in etymologies. |
| ON | Old Norse | Labels Old Norse, the North Germanic language of the Viking Age, as the source of English words introduced through Scandinavian settlement in England from the 9th… |
| orig. | Originally | Signals that a word or sense first belonged to a different meaning, place or group, as in "orig. |
| part. | Participle | Labels a participle, a verb form that can act as an adjective or help form compound tenses, such as "broken" or "running." Dictionaries use it in labels like "pres.… |
| pass. | Passive | Labels the passive voice, in which the subject receives the action ("The window was broken") rather than performing it. |
| PIE | Proto-Indo-European | Names the reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European languages, including English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Persian. |
| pl. | Plural | Indicates the plural form of a noun, or that a word is used only in the plural. |
| poet. | Poetic | Labels words used mainly in poetry or highly literary writing, such as "o'er," "ere" or "eventide." Dictionaries add it to show the word would sound strange in ordinary… |
| POS | Part of speech | Refers to the grammatical category of a word, such as noun, verb, adjective or adverb. |
| poss. | Possessive | Labels possessive forms that show ownership or association, such as "John's," "the cat's" or the pronouns "my," "your" and "theirs." It appears in grammars… |
| pp. | Past participle | Grammatical label for the verb form used in perfect tenses and the passive voice, such as "eaten" or "walked." Dictionaries list it after irregular verbs, often with… |
| pred. | Predicative | Labels an adjective used only after a linking verb such as "be," "seem" or "become," not before a noun. |
| prep. | Preposition | Identifies a word that links a noun or pronoun to the rest of the sentence, showing relations of place, time or direction, such as "in," "under," "during" or "toward." |
| pres. | Present (tense) | Labels the present tense in grammar descriptions and verb tables, as in "pres. part." (present participle) or "pres. 3rd sing." It appears in dictionaries, grammars and… |
| pron. | Pronoun | Marks a word that stands in for a noun or noun phrase, such as "she," "it," "who," "this" or "someone." Dictionaries describe pronouns further as personal, possessive… |
| refl. | Reflexive | Marks reflexive pronouns or verbs, where the object refers back to the subject, as in "She taught herself" or French "se laver" ("to wash oneself"). |
| rel. | Relative | Labels relative pronouns and clauses, such as "who," "which" and "that" introducing a clause that modifies a noun, as in "the book that I borrowed." Grammars and… |
| RP | Received Pronunciation | Names the accent traditionally regarded as standard in British English, associated with southern England, private schools and, historically, the BBC. |
| sb | Somebody | Stands in for any person in learner's dictionaries and phrase books, showing where a noun or pronoun goes in a pattern such as "remind sb of sth." It is especially… |
| Scot. | Scottish | Labels a word or sense used chiefly in Scotland or in Scottish English, such as "wee," "outwith" or "loch." Dictionaries use it alongside regional labels such as Brit.… |
| sg | Singular (linguistic glossing) | Marks singular number in interlinear glosses, the word-by-word translations linguists place under example sentences. |
| sing. | Singular | Indicates the singular form of a word, or that a noun is used only in the singular in a given sense. |
| Skt. | Sanskrit | Labels Sanskrit, the classical language of ancient India, as the source of a word in etymologies. |
| sl. | Slang | Labels words or senses that are very informal, often new, group-specific or short-lived, such as "dude" or "bail" meaning to leave. |
| Sp. | Spanish | Identifies Spanish as the source language in etymologies and glossaries. |
| spec. | Specifically | Narrows a definition to a particular technical or restricted application. |
| sth | Something | Represents any thing or idea in the patterns given by learner's dictionaries, such as "get rid of sth" or "take sth for granted." It shows where an object must appear… |
| subj. | Subject | Marks the subject of a clause, the noun phrase that typically performs the action or is described by the verb, in grammar exercises, sentence diagrams and teaching notes. |
| superl. | Superlative | Labels the superlative form of an adjective or adverb, which picks out the extreme member of a group, such as "tallest," "best" or "most useful." |
| SVO | Subject-verb-object | Describes the basic word order of a clause in which the subject comes first, then the verb, then the object, as in "Dogs chase cats." English, Mandarin Chinese and… |
| syn. | Synonym | Introduces a word with the same or nearly the same meaning as the headword in dictionaries, thesauruses and vocabulary lists. |
| trans. | Transitive | Short label for transitive in grammar notes and dictionary entries, meaning a verb that takes a direct object. |
| usu. | Usually | Signals the typical but not invariable pattern of a word's use, such as "usu. in plural" or "usu. followed by 'with'." It appears mainly in dictionary entries and… |
| v. | Verb | Marks a headword as a verb, the part of speech expressing an action, occurrence or state. |
| var. | Variant | Identifies an alternative spelling or form of a word, as in "var. of judgment." It appears in dictionaries, glossaries and indexes. |
| vi. | Verb, intransitive | Identifies a verb that does not take a direct object, such as "arrive," "sleep" or "laugh." The label tells readers that, in that sense, the verb cannot be followed… |
| VP | Verb phrase | Labels a phrase headed by a verb, including its objects, complements and modifiers, such as "ate the whole pizza quickly." It is a basic unit in syntax trees and… |
| vt. | Verb, transitive | Labels a verb that takes a direct object, such as "bring" or "describe," which need something to act on. |
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