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It may be placed after an initial letter used to abbreviate a word. It is often placed after each individual letter in acronyms and initialisms (e.g., "U.S."). However, the use of full stops after letters in an initialism or acronym is declining, and many of these without punctuation have become accepted norms (e.g., "UK" and "NATO").
A period (a.k.a. full stop) is sometimes used to signify abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this convention is best practice. According to Hart's Rules, a word shortened by dropping letters from the end terminates with a period, whereas a word shorted by dropping letters from the middle does not.
The character known as the full point or full stop in British and Commonwealth English and as the period in North American English . serves multiple purposes. As the full stop, it is used to mark the end of a sentence. It is also used, as the full point, to indicate abbreviation, including of names as initials: [10]
Interpunct, Period: Decimal separator: ♀ ♂ ⚥ Gender symbol: LGBT symbols ` Grave (symbol) Quotation mark#Typewriters and early computers ̀: Grave (diacrictic) Acute, Circumflex, Tilde: Combining Diacritical Marks, Diacritic > Greater-than sign: Angle bracket « » Guillemet: Angle brackets, quotation marks: Much greater than Hedera
A shortening is an abbreviation formed by removing at least the last letter of a word (e.g. etc. and rhino), and sometimes also containing letters not present in the full form (e.g. bike). As a general rule, use a full point after a shortening that only exists in writing (e.g. etc.) but not for a shortening that is used in speech (e.g. rhino).
Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps with no punctuation. For some, an initialism [ 1 ] or alphabetism , connotes this general meaning, and an acronym is a subset with a narrower definition: an initialism pronounced as a word rather than as a sequence of letters.
"for each one hundred" Commonly "percent" in American English. [6] PhD Philosophiae Doctor "Doctor of Philosophy" Where periods are used, it is "Ph.D." p.m. post meridiem "after midday" Used on the twelve-hour clock to indicate times after 12 midday. Example: "We will meet the mayor at 2:00 p.m." (14:00 in 24-hour clock) p.m.a. post mortem auctoris
The letter P as a historiated initial (depicting Peter) in an illuminated Latin bible, 1407 AD. Colored with paint and gold leaf The oldest historiated initial known, the St Petersburg Bede, 8th century. A historiated initial is an initial, an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, that contains a picture ...