Abbreviations

When do you use abbreviations? Here are some common examples:

Titles before proper names: Dr., Ms., Mr., St. (Saint), Lt.
Descriptions following names of people, places, or things: Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Ltd., Washington, D.C., Pontiac GTO, Smith Co., Inc.
Names of agencies, organizations, and nations: USA, CIA, NASA, USSR, IBM, MTV
Words accompanying dates or figures: B.C., A.D., No., A.M., P.M., Fig.
With footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies.

Note: See our individual entries for different bibliographic styles, and check with your professors to verify which method of citation they prefer.

ed. edited by, editor, edition
e.g. for example
etc. and so forth
et. al. and others
ibid. in the same place; as cited previously*
i.e. that is
op. cit. in the work cited elsewhere*
p., pp. page, pages
trans. translated by

*Ibid. and op. cit. are rarely used in documentation. See our Chicago-Style documentation for details on the use of ibid.