About

This database has been compiled over a 19 year period, painstakingly curated and checked for duplication and accuracy. Thousands of web links are also included for anyone needing more detail on a specific result.

The outcome of this work is a collection of acronyms and initialisms for the oil & gas and petrochemical industries. It also includes a wide range of physics and mathematics terms, government agencies and other entries widely used in an engineering environment.

Acronyms

A word formed from the initial letters of other words or (occasionally) from the initial parts of syllables taken from other words, the whole being pronounced as a single word (such as HAZOP or UNESCO).

Initialisms

A group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter or part being pronounced separately (such as DCS or RGB).

Why no abbreviations?

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form (such as approx. for approximately, or Mass. for Massachusetts). Abbreviations are neither acronyms nor initialisms, so they are not included.

There is still plenty of work to do, especially with web links: at present about 31% of the entries have one.