K-9
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Canine |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Government & Politics, Sports |
| Also written | K/9 |
K-9 has two meanings. It stands for Canine (police) or Strikeouts per nine innings (baseball).
Meanings of K-9 at a glance
| # | K-9 stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canine | Government & Politics › Police |
| 2 | Strikeouts per nine innings | Sports › Baseball |
1. Canine
Government & Politics · Police Abbreviations
Police dog unit or the dog itself, trained for tracking, suspect apprehension, building searches and detecting drugs, explosives or human remains. German shepherds and Belgian Malinois are the most common breeds.
Example: The K-9 tracked the suspect from the crashed car to a shed three blocks away.
A homophone of "canine." The US Army's K-9 Corps, created in 1942, popularized the term. Police dogs usually live with their handlers and retire after about eight to ten years of service. Many states make injuring a police dog a felony. Courts have ruled on dog sniffs in cases such as Rodriguez v. United States (2015), which limited extending traffic stops for them.
2. Strikeouts per nine innings (K/9)
Sports · Baseball Abbreviations
Strikeout rate for pitchers: strikeouts multiplied by nine and divided by innings pitched. A K/9 above 10 indicates a power pitcher.
Example: His K/9 climbed to 12.4 after he added a sweeper.
Strikeout rates have climbed for decades, and many analysts prefer K%, strikeouts per batter faced, because it is not distorted by how many baserunners a pitcher allows. BB/9 measures walks the same way, and K/BB is the strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Related abbreviations
More police abbreviations
- GTA – Grand theft auto
- HGN – Horizontal gaze nystagmus
- IA – Internal affairs
- IID – Ignition interlock device
- LAPD – Los Angeles Police Department
- LASD – Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
- LEO – Law enforcement officer
- LEOSA – Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act
See all 84 police abbreviations →