abbreviation

> abbreviation
abbreviations are shortened forms of words, usually used as a space-saving technique and are becoming increasingly common in modern usage. They frequently take the form of the initial letters of several words as, for example, in the title of an organization, person, etc, e.g. TUC (Trade Union Council) or BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), JP (Justice of the Peace). Note that, unlike acronyms, abbreviations are not pronounced as words even when this would be possible. Thus TUC is not pronounced tuk.
Abbreviations may also be formed from the first and last letters of a word (when they are known as contractions), e.g. Dr (Doctor), Rd (Road), St (Street or Saint), pd (paid). Many of these are found mainly in written, rather than spoken, form.
Abbreviations may also be formed from the first few letters of a word, e.g. Feb (February), Prof (Professor), Rev (Reverend).
In modern usage the tendency is to omit full stops from abbreviations. This is most true of abbreviations involving initial capital letters, as in TUC, BBC, EEC and USA. In such cases full stops should definitely not be used if one or some of the initial letters do not belong to a full word. Thus "television" is abbreviated to TV.
There are usually no full stops in abbreviations involving the first and last letters of a word (contractions), as in Dr, Mr, Rd, St, but this is a matter of taste.
Abbreviations involving the first few letters of a word, as in Prof for "Professor", are the most likely to have full stops, as Feb. for "February", but again this is now a matter of taste.
Plurals in abbreviations are mostly formed by adding lower-case s, as in Drs, JPs, TVs. Note the absence of apostrophes.
See also acronym.