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U.S. states. This is a list of traditional abbreviations for U.S. states and territories These abbreviations (short names) were used in mailing addresses before the introduction of two-letter U.S. postal abbreviations. The traditional abbreviations are still commonly used in other ways besides mailing addresses.
Each state has its own unique shortened name codes called state abbreviations used in written documents and mailing addresses. The state abbreviations are always in the same format: two letter abbreviations where both letters are uppercase and no periods or spaces between each letter.
ANSI. 2-letter and 2-digit codes from the ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009 (supersedes FIPS 5-2) USPS. 2-letter codes used by the United States Postal Service. USCG. 2-letter codes used by the United States Coast Guard (bold red text shows differences between ANSI and USCG) Abbreviations: GPO. Older variable-length official US Government Printing ...
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As a general rule, the names of states should be spelled out when they appear in sentencesbut abbreviated in other contexts. For example: 1. "Our family had been transferred from Endicott, New York, to Raleigh, North Carolina. That was the word used by the people at IBM, transferred." (David Sedaris, "Naked," 1997) 2. "Both men were raised in the M...
In bibliographies, lists, charts where space is at a premium, reference lists, footnotes and endnotes, and in mailing addresses, state names are usually shortened using the postal abbreviation. This applies to Chicago Manual of Style and the American psychological Association Style (APA). The two-letter, no-period state abbreviations recommended by...
Before 1963, there were no ZIP codes used on postal mail in the United States, and the U.S. Post Office preferred that people wrote out state and territory names completely to avoid confusion in sorting mail. In the early 1800s, it had established a standardized list of acceptable abbreviations, updating it in 1874. The list remained relatively unc...
Finally, United States may be abbreviated to U.S. when used as an adjective, but in formal writing, it's customarily spelled out as a noun. If you are following the Chicago Manual, you'll remove the periods to become USexcept in bibliography or reference entries pertaining to U.S. statutes, court cases, and other legal-context usages, which retain ...
May 7, 2021 · However, since most mail addressing equipment allowed only 23 characters, the state names needed to be shortened to make room for the ZIP Code. Although an initial list of abbreviations for the state names was provided in June 1963, some abbreviations had more than two letters which were still long. USA states with abbreviations. Current Postal ...
Us StateAbbreviationAlabamaALAlaskaAKArizonaAZArkansasAR- John Misachi
10 states (AK, AZ, KS, MN, MS, MO, MT, NV, TN, TX) take the first and last letters of the previous postal abbreviation that was in place before the two-letter system was introduced. The last group (the "random letter" ones) is mostly to avoid confusion between states with similar names, I would assume. 3. Award.
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Why? Because ZIP codes were adopted that year, and, owing to the limitations of addressing equipment, abbreviations had to be shortened to make room for the numbers. While the two-letter abbreviations are now preferred, the earlier versions continue to be widely used. In the table below, we provide abbreviations for each U.S. state and territory.
