3COM

COMputer, COMmunication, COMpatibility

3M

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing

4-H

Head, Heart, Hands, and Health

A&P

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company

AA

Alcoholics Anonymous

AAA

American Automobile Association

AARP

American Association of Retired Persons

ABC

American Broadcasting Company

ABR

Available Bit Rate

ADP

Automated Data Processing

AfDB

African Development Bank

AFL-CIO

American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations

AGP

Accelerated Graphics Port

AI

Artificial Intelligence

AKA

Also Known As

AL

Arab League

ALGOL

ALGOrithmic Language

AMD

Advanced Micro Device

AM/FM

Amplitude Modulation/Frequency Modulation

AMOCO

AMerican Oil COmpany

ANSI

American National Standards Institute

ANZUS

Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty

APEC

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

ASAP

As Soon As Possible

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

AsDB

Asian Development Bank

ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

AT

Advanced Technology

AT&T

American Telephone and Telegraph

ATF

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

ATM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

ATM

Automated Teller Machine

ATP

Adenine Triphosphate

AWOL

Absent Without Leave

BASF

Baden Aniline and Soda Factory

BASIC

Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

BB

Ball-Bearing

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation

BFD

Big F**king Deal

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System

BLT

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato

BMW

Bavarian Motor Works (на немецком: Bayrische Motor Werken)

BPOE

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks

BVD

Bradley, Voorhies, and Day

BYOB

Bring Your Own Beer

CAD

Computer-Aided Design

CARE

Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere

CAT

Computerized Axial Tomography

CATV

CAbel TeleVision

CB

Citizen's Band

CBR

Constant Bit Rate

CBS

Columbia Broadcasting System

CCC

Customs Cooperation Council

CCD

Charge-Coupled Device

CD

Compact Disc

CD-I

Compact Disc - Interactive

CD-R

Compact Disc - Recordable

CD-ROM

Compact Disc - Read-Only Memory

CD-RW

Compact Disc - ReWritable

CE

Council of Europe

CEI

Central European Initiative

CEO

Chief Executive Office

CERN

European Organization for Nuclear Research

CGI

Common Gateway Interface

CGM

Computer Graphic Metafile

CIO

Chairman-in-Office

CIS

Commonwealth of Independent States (по-русски СНГ)

CMY

Cyan+Magenta+Yellow

CMYK

Cyan+Magenta+Yellow+blacK

CNN

Cable News Network

COBOL

COmmon Business-Oriented Language

COCOM

Coordinating Committee on Export Controls

CONELRAD

CONtrol of Electronic-magnetic RADiations

CONUS

Continental United States

CPR

CardioPulmonary Resuscitation

CPSU

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

CPU

Central Processing Unit

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets

CVS

Consumer Value Service

CY

Calendar Year

DAT

Digital Audio Tape

DB

DataBase

DC

developed country

DDT

Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane

DEC

Digital Equipment Corporation

DECT

Digital European Cordless Telecommunications

DEW

Distant Early Warning

DMA

Direct Memory Access

DNA

DeoxyriboNucleic Acid

DNA

Digital Network Architecture

DNS

Domain Name System

DOA

Dead On Arrival

DOS

Disk Operating System

dpi (d.p.i.)

Dots Per Inch

DTP

DeskTop Publishing

DRAM

Dynamic Random Access Memory

DVD

Digital Versatile Disc

EADB

East African Development Bank

EAN

European Article Numering

EBRD

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

EC

European Community

ECOSOC

Economic and Social Council

ECS

European Coal and Steel Community

EDP

Electronic Data Processing

EEC

European Economic Community

EFTA

European Free Trade Association

EIB

European Investment Bank

EMU

European Monetary Union

EMU

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (Space Suit)

EPCOT

Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow

ER

Emergency Room

ESA

European Space Agency

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network

ESSO

S.O. from Standard Oil, the Rockefeller-owned oil company

ETA

Estimated Time of Arrival

EU

European Union

Fannie Mae (from FNMA)

Federal National Mortgage Association

FAO

Food and Agriculture Organization

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

FAX

facsimile

FDD

Floppy Disk Drive

FDIC

Federal Depositors Insurance Company

FEMA

Federal Emergency Management Agency

FICA

Federal Insurance Contributions Act

Flak

FLiegerAbwehrKanonen (Lit. aircraft defense gun.)

FM

Frequency Modulation

FORTRAN

FORmula TRANslation

FSU

Former Soviet Union

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

FUBAR

"Fouled" Up Beyond All Recognition

FY

Fiscal Year

FYROM

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

GAF

General Aniline and Film

GATT

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

GDR

German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

GE

General Electric

Gestapo

GEheime STAatsPOlizei (Lit. secret state police.)

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format

GIGO

Garbage In, Garbage Out

GM

General Motors

GORP

Good Old Raisin Peanut (A camping food.)

GPRS

General Packet Radio Service

GPS

Global Positioning System

GSM

Global System for Mobile telecommunications

GUI

Graphical User Interface

HBO

Home Box Office

HDD

Hard Disk Drive

HDL/LDL

High-Density Lipoprotein/Low-Density Lipoprotein

HDPE

High Density Polyethylene

HDTV

High Definition TeleVision

HF

High-Frequency

HIV

Human Immunodefficiency Virus

HP

Hewlett Packard

HTML

HyperText Markup Language

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Prorocol

HUMVEE

High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle

IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency

IBEC

International Bank for Economic Cooperation

IBM

International Business Machines

IBRD

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)

ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organization

ICBM

Inter-Continental Ballistics Missile

ICC

International Chamber of Commerce

ICJ

International Court of Justice (World Court)

ICRC

International Committee for the Red Cross

ICRM

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

ICTR

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

ICTY

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

IDA

International Development Association

IEA

International Energy Agency

IFAD

International Fund for Agricultural Development

IFC

International Finance Corporation

IHOP

International House of Pancakes

IIB

International Investment Bank

ILO

International Labor Organization

IMF

International Monetary Fund

IMO

International Maritime Organization

INRI

Iesus Nazarenenus Rex Iudaeorum (Lit. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)

Intelsat

International Telecommunications Satellite Organization

Internet

INTERconnected computer NETworks

Interpol

International Criminal Police Organization

IOC

International Olympic Committee

IOM

International Organization for Migration

IP

Internetwork Protocol

IRA

Individual Retirement Account

IRA

Irish Republican Army

ISBN

International Standard Book Number

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network

ISO

International Standards Organization; film-speed designation, formerly ASA

ITU

International Telecommunication Union

JPEG

Joing Photographic Experts Group

JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JVC

Japan Victor Company

KFOR

Kosovo Force

KGB

Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti

kHz

KiloHertz

KIA

Killed In Action

KISS

Keep It Simple, Stupid

KJV

King James Version

KLM

Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Lit. Royal Dutch Airline.)

KO

Knock-out (TKO being a technical knock-out.)

kWh

Kilowatt-Hour

LAN

Local Area Network

LASER

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

LCD

Liquid Crystal Display

LDC

Less Developed Country

LDPE

Low Density Polyethylene

LED

Light-Emitting Diode

LLDC

least developed country

lpi (l.p.i.)

Lines Per Inch

M&M

Mars & Murray

MASER

Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation

MASH

Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

MCI

Microwave Communications of America

MG

Morris & Garash

MHz

MegaHertz

MIA

Missing in Action

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface

MiG

MIkoyan and Gurevich, Soviet military aircraft designers

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension

MIPS

Million of Instructions Per Second

MIRV

Multiple Independently-targeted Re-entry Vehicle

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MMX

MultiMedia eXtension

MO

Modus Operandi

Modem

Modulator/Demodulator

MP

Military Police

MPEG

Motion Picture Experts Group

MSN

MicroSoft Network

MRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

NA

Not Available

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NAC

North Atlantic Council

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Nazi

NAtional soZIalist

NB

Nota Bene (лат. обрати внимание)

NBA

National Basketball Association

NBC

National Broadcasting Company

NBC

Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons

NC

Nordic Council

NCC

Either Naval Classification Code or Naval Construction Contract (From Star Trek, NCC-1701)

NEA

Nuclear Energy Agency

NEC

Nippon Electronics Corporation

Necco

New England Confectionery COmpany

NFL

National Football League

NHL

National Hockey League

NIMBY

Not In My BackYard

Nitinol

NIckel, TItanium, and Naval Ordinance Laboratory

NL

Natural Language

NM

nautical mile

NMT

Nordic Mobile Telephone

N.N.

Nomen nescio (лат. некое лицо)

NORAD

North American Air Defense Command

NORELCO

NORth AmErican PhiLlips COmpany

NOW

National Organization of Women

NPR

National Public Radio

NSA

National Security Administration

OCR

Optical Character Recognition

OECD

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OLE

Object Linking and Embedding of objects

OPCW

Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

OPEC

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

OS

Operating System

OSCE

Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe

OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OTAN

Organisation du Traite de l'Atlantique Nord (=NATO)

Pakistan

Punjab, Afghan border states, Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN

Pap

George Papanicolaou, inventor of the test

Parsec

Parallax second

PBS

Public Broadcasting System

PDF

Portable Document Format

PDQ

Pretty Damned Quick

PDRY

People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

PfP

Partnership for Peace

PIN

Personal Identification

pH

Pourvoir Hydrogene (Lit. power of hydrogen.)

PnP

Plug and Play

P.O.

Post Office

PO

Private Office

POTS

Plain Old Telephone Service (Basic service used by local exchange telephone companies.)

POTUS

President of the United States

POW

Prisoner of War

PPP

Point to Point Protocol

P.S.

Post scriptum (лат. после написанного)

PSI

Pounds per square inch

PT

Patrol Torpedo

PVC

PolyVinyl Chloride

PX

Post eXchange

Q.E.D.

Quod erat demonstrandum (Lit. Which was to be demonstrated.)

QANTAS

Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Service

Radar

RAdio Detection And Ranging

RAM

Random Access Memory

RCA

Radio Corporation of America

RDA

Recommended Daily Allowance

RFD

Rural-Free Delivery

RGB

Red+Blue+Green

Rh

Rhesus monkey factor

RKO

Radio-Keith-Orpheum

RNA

Ribonucleic Acid

ROM

Read-Only Memory

ROTC

Reserve Officers Training Corps

ROY G. BIV

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violent (Rainbow Mnemonic)

RSVP

Respondez S'il Vous Plait

S.A.

Sine Anno (лат. без года)

Saab

Svenska Aeroplan Ab. (Lit. Swedish Airplanes, Inc.)

SAM

Surface-to-Air Missile

SAR

Search and Rescue

SASE

Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope

SCMADS

State County Municipal Apprehensive Data System (The computers cops have in their cars that hold information on people.)

SCSI

Small Computer Serial Interface

SCTV

Second City TeleVision

SCUBA

Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

SDI

Stratigic Defence Initiative (=СОИ)

SEAL

SEa, Air, and Land

SETI

Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence

SFRY

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

SG

Secretary General

SHAZAM

из имен Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles и Mercury

SHF

Super-High-Frequency

SMS

Short Message Service

SNAFU

Situation Normal--All "Fouled" Up

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure

S.O.S.

неофициальное значение - Save Our Souls

Soweto

SOuthWEst TOwnship

SPF

South Pacific Forum

SPF

Sun Protection Factor

SRO

Standing Room Only

STD

Sexually Transmitted Disease

STP

Scientifically Treated Petroleum (also, Standard Temperature and Pressure)

SUNOCO

SUN Oil COmpany

SWAK

Sealed With A Kiss

SWAT

Special Weapons And Tactics

TANSTAAFL

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch

TARFU

Things Are Really "Fouled" Up

TBA

To Be Announced

TCP/IP

Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

TDK

Tokyo Denki Kogaku

TGIF

Thank God It's Friday

TIFF

Tag Image File Format

TLA

Three Letter Acronym ;)

TNT

TriNitroToluene

TNTC

Too Numerous To Count

TTFN

Ta-ta for now

TTY

Teletypewriter

TWAIN

Technology Without An Interesting Name (A computer interface to acquire images through a device such as a scanner.)

UAE

United Arab Emirates

UHF

Ultra-High Frequency

UK

United Kingdom

UN

United Nations

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

UNICEF

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund

UNU

United Nations University

UPU

Universal Postal Union

URL

Uniform Resource Locator

US

United States

USSR

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

USSR/EE

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics/Eastern Europe

VCR

Video Cassette Recorder

VHF

Very High Frequency

VHS

Video Home System

VISTA

Volunteers In Service to America, a Great Society agency

VSOP

Very Superior Old Pale, a brandy rating

WAC

Women's Army Corps

WADB

West African Development Bank

WAN

Wide Area Network

WAVES

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service

WC

Water Closet

WD-40

Water Displacement, Formula 40

WEU

Western European Union

WFC

World Food Council

WFP

World Food Program

WFTU

World Federation of Trade Unions

WHO

World Health Organisation

WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organization

WMF

Windows MetaFile

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

WNL

Within Normal Limits

WP

Warsaw Pact

WTO (WTrO)

World Trade Organization

WToO

World Tourism Organization

WTC

World Trade Center

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get

Y2K

Year 2000

YAR

Yemen Arab Republic

YKK

Yoshida Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Zipper Company)

ZIP

Zone Improvement Plan