Wikipedia:Disambiguation and abbreviations
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Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms are likely to be ambiguous, needing disambiguation. Thus abbreviations should usually be expanded (see Naming conventions (abbreviations)) beforehand.
For two- and three-letter combinations, there is generally a list detailing a few or many possible uses.
Sample Wiki markup for abbreviations
edit| Case | Sample | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| Article | NATO | see sample NATO and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (abbreviations) |
| Redirect | US | #redirect [[United States]]
|
| Alternative use | SI | :''Alternative use: ISO country code for [[Slovenia]]''
|
| SI | :''Alternative uses: see [[SI (disambiguation)]]''
| |
| Disambiguation and abbreviation expansion page | Au | '''Au''' or '''AU''' may refer to:
* [[Astronomical Unit]] (AU)
* [[Atomic units]] (au)
* [[Gold]], atomic symbol Au
* [[Australia]], ISO country code AU
* [[Au, Vorarlberg]], a town in the district of Bregenz in Vorarlberg in Austria
{{disambig}}
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- If there is an article that is named that way (e.g. SI, Ur, pH), the page should be used for the article at one of these pages, rather than the page with the abbreviations.
- Abbreviations pages are a type of disambiguation (see Wikipedia:Disambiguation).
- Usually, there should be just one page for all cases (upper- or lower-case), e.g. MB for MB, mB, mb, Mb.
- If the case of the abbreviation is important (e.g. for SI Units, symbols for chemical elements), the exact one should be noted. In the sample above: atomic units (au), gold (Au), astronomical unit (AU). See also MB.
- For two-letter combinations, if there is no article, the page is usually placed at the uppercase version (BA), the lowercase (Ba) redirecting there.
- Abbreviations with dots usually redirect to the "undotted" version, e.g., DC., D.C, D.C., D. C. could redirect to DC.
2-3 letter combinations
editAbbreviations
editThe following group undisambiguated abbreviations in the Wikipedia namespace. It can be helpful to make sure that the abbreviation links to the abbreviated article title (if such an article exists).