The list below contains some of the common abbreviations found in scholarly documentation--that is, in footnotes, parenthetical notes, glossary entries, and bibliographic references in research papers, articles, and books. Ordinarily, abbreviations are not used in the body of an essay, article, or report.
Common Scholarly Abbreviations
| abbr. | abbreviation, abbreviated |
| adj. | adjective |
| adv. | adverb |
| anon. | anonymous |
| b. | born |
| c. (ca.) | circa or around (used with dates) |
| cap. | capital, capitalize |
| cf. | compare |
| ch. (chap.) | chapter |
| colloq. | colloquial |
| conj. | conjunction |
| d. | died |
| def. | definition |
| doc. | document |
| ed. | editor, edition, edited by |
| e.g. | for example (from the Latin exempli gratia) |
| et al. | and others (from the Latin et alii, et aliae, et alia) |
| etc. | and so on (from the Latin et cetera) |
| fig. | figure |
| ibid. | in the same place (from the Latin ibidem) |
| i.e. | that is (from the Latin id est) |
| illus. | illustration, illustrated by |
| lang. | language |
| narr. | narrator, narrated by |
| NB | take note (from the Latin nota bene) |
| no. | number |
| obj. | object |
| OED | The Oxford English Dictionary |
| p., pp. | page, pages |
| par. | paragraph |
| pl. | plural |
| poss. | possessive |
| prep. | preposition |
| pron. | pronoun |
| PS | postscript |
| pseud. | pseudonym |
| pub. | publisher, published by |
| qtd. | quoted |
| rev. | revision, revised by |
| rpt. | reprint |
| sec. | section |
| sing. | singular |
| syn. | synonym |
| trans. | translation, translated by |
| U or univ. | university |
| UP | University Press |
| v. or vb. | verb |
| vol. | volume |
| vs. | versus |
