Acronym herbarium
August 24, 2023 (updated May 7, 2025)
This collection of acronyms, like a herbarium, documents the corners of computer science and software engineering I’ve had the pleasure of visiting so far.
| 0 | 2FA | Two-Factor Authentication |
| 1 | 3P | Third Party |
| 2 | A11y | Accessibility |
| 3 | ACID | Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability |
| 4 | ADT | Abstract Data Type |
| 5 | AFK | Away From Keyboard |
| 6 | AI | Artificial Intelligence |
| 7 | AJAX | Asynchronous JavaScript and XML |
| 8 | AMD | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. |
| 9 | AMD | Asynchronous Module Definition |
| 10 | ANSI | American National Standards Institute |
| 11 | API | Application Programming Interface |
| 12 | APIaaS | API as a Service |
| 13 | ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
| 14 | ASI | Automatic Semicolon Insertion |
| 15 | AST | Abstract Syntax Tree |
| 16 | AT&T | American Telephone and Telegraph |
| 17 | AWS | Amazon Web Services |
| 18 | BASIC | Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
| 19 | BDD | Behavior-Driven Design |
| 20 | BDUF | Big Design Up Front |
| 21 | BE | Back End |
| 22 | BEM | Block, Element, Modifier |
| 23 | BINAC | Binary Automatic Computer |
| 24 | BIOS | Basic Input/Output System |
| 25 | BLOB | Binary Large Object |
| 26 | BOM | Browser Object Model |
| 27 | BSON | Binary JavaScript Object Notation |
| 28 | BUC | Business Use-Case |
| 29 | BSOD | Blue Screen of Death |
| 30 | cb | callback |
| 31 | CD | Compact Disk |
| 32 | CD | Continuous Delivery |
| 33 | CD | Continuous Deployment |
| 34 | CD-ROM | Compact Disk Read-Only Memory |
| 35 | CDD | Component-Driven Development |
| 36 | CDN | Content Delivery Network |
| 37 | CI | Continuous Integration |
| 38 | CJM | Customer Journey Map |
| 39 | CJS | Common.js |
| 40 | CLI | Command Line Interface |
| 41 | CMS | Content Management System |
| 42 | CMYK | Cyan Magenta Yellow Key |
| 43 | CMU | Carnegie Mellon University |
| 44 | CPP | C++ |
| 45 | CPU | Central Processing Unit |
| 46 | CR | Carriage Return |
| 47 | CRA | Create React App |
| 48 | CRACO | Create React App Configuration Override |
| 49 | CRUD | Create Read Update Delete |
| 50 | CS | Computer Science |
| 51 | CSF | Component Story Format |
| 52 | CSP | Content Security Policy |
| 53 | CSR | Client-Side Rendering |
| 54 | CSS | Cascading Style Sheets |
| 55 | CSV | Comma-Separated Values |
| 56 | CT | Continuous Testing |
| 57 | CTA | Call To Action |
| 58 | CX | Customer Experience |
| 59 | D3 | Data-Driven Documents |
| 60 | DaaS | Data as a Service |
| 61 | DAM | Digital Asset Management |
| 62 | DB | Database |
| 63 | DDD | Domain Driven Design |
| 64 | DDoS | Distributed Denial-of-Service |
| 65 | DFA | Deterministic Finite Automaton |
| 66 | DFSA | Deterministic Finite-State Automaton |
| 67 | DFSM | Deterministic Finite-State Machine |
| 68 | DNS | Domain Name System |
| 69 | DoD | Definition of Done |
| 70 | DOM | Document Object Model |
| 71 | DOS | Disk Operating System |
| 72 | dp | Density-independent Pixels |
| 73 | DP | Dynamic Programming |
| 74 | DPA | Data Processing Agreement |
| 75 | DRY | Don't Repeat Yourself |
| 76 | DSL | Domain-Specific Language |
| 77 | DSV | Delimiter-Separated Values |
| 78 | DTD | Document Type Definition |
| 79 | DVD | Digital Versatile Disk |
| 80 | DX | Developer Experience |
| 81 | EBP | Elementary Business Process |
| 82 | ECMA | European Computer Manufacturers Association |
| 83 | EE | Electrical Engineering |
| 84 | emf | Electromotive Force |
| 85 | ENIAC | Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer |
| 86 | ENOENT | Error No Entity |
| 87 | EOF | End of File |
| 88 | EOL | End of Life |
| 89 | EOL | End of Line |
| 90 | EOY | End of Year |
| 91 | ERTW | Engineers Rule The World |
| 92 | ESM | ECMAScript Modules |
| 93 | ESP | Email Service Provider |
| 94 | EV | Environment Variable |
| 95 | FAANG | Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Google |
| 96 | FaaS | Function as a Service |
| 97 | FAB | Floating Action Button |
| 98 | FAQ | Frequentyly Asked Questions |
| 99 | FCP | First Contentful Paint |
| 100 | FE | Front End |
| 101 | FIFO | First In, First Out (see LIFO) |
| 102 | FOSS | Free and Open-Source Software |
| 103 | FP | Functional Programming |
| 104 | FSF | Free Software Foundation |
| 105 | FSM | Finite-State Machine |
| 106 | FTP | File Transfer Protocol |
| 107 | FY | Fiscal Year |
| 108 | Gb | Gigabit |
| 109 | GB | Gigabyte |
| 110 | Gbps | Gigabits per second |
| 111 | GC | Garbage Collector |
| 112 | GCC | GNU Compiler Collection |
| 113 | GCP | Google Cloud Platform |
| 114 | GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation |
| 115 | GFM | GitHub Flavored Markdown |
| 116 | GIF | Graphics Interchange Format |
| 117 | GLSL | OpenGL Shading Language |
| 118 | GNU | GNU's Not Unix |
| 119 | GPL | GNU General Public License |
| 120 | GPU | Graphics Processing Unit |
| 121 | GTM | Google Tag Manager |
| 122 | GUI | Graphical User Interface |
| 123 | GUID | Globally Unique Identifier |
| 124 | GWT | Google Web Toolkit |
| 125 | HCD | Human-Centered Design |
| 126 | HCI | Human-Computer Interaction |
| 127 | HDMI | High-Definition Multimedia Interface |
| 128 | HHD | Hybrid Hard Drive |
| 129 | HN | Hacker News |
| 130 | HOC | Higher-Order Component |
| 131 | HOF | Higher-Order Function |
| 132 | HSB | Hue Saturation Brightness |
| 133 | HSL | Hue Saturation Lightness |
| 134 | HSLA | Hue Saturation Lightness Alpha |
| 135 | HTML | Hyper-Text Markup Language |
| 136 | HTTP | Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol |
| 137 | HTTPS | Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Secure |
| 138 | HMR | Hot Module Replacement |
| 139 | I/O | Input/Output |
| 140 | I18n | Internationalization |
| 141 | IA | Information Architecture |
| 142 | IaaS | Infrastructure as a Service |
| 143 | IAM | Identity and Access Management |
| 144 | IANA | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority |
| 145 | IBM | International Business Machines Corporation |
| 146 | IDE | Integrated Development Environment |
| 147 | IDX | Index |
| 148 | IE | Internet Explorer |
| 149 | IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| 150 | IIFE | Immediately Invoked Function Expression |
| 151 | IMAP | Internet Message Access Protocol |
| 152 | IME | Input Method Editor |
| 153 | iOS | iPhone Operating System |
| 154 | IoT | Internet of Things |
| 155 | IP | Internet Protocol |
| 156 | IPC | Inter-Process Communication |
| 157 | IPS | In-Plane Switching |
| 158 | ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| 159 | ISP | Interface Segregation Principle |
| 160 | ISP | Internet Service Provider |
| 161 | IT | Information Technology |
| 162 | JIT | Just-In-Time |
| 163 | JS | JavaScript |
| 164 | JSON | JavaScript Object Notation |
| 165 | JSX | JavaScript XML |
| 166 | JTBD | Jobs To Be Done |
| 167 | JVM | Java Virtual Machine |
| 168 | JWT | JSON Web Tokens |
| 169 | k8s | Kubernetes |
| 170 | Kb | Kilobit |
| 171 | KB | Kilobyte |
| 172 | Kbps | Kilobits per second |
| 173 | KISS | Keep It Simple, Stupid |
| 174 | KMS | Knowledge Management System |
| 175 | KPI | Key Performance Indicator |
| 176 | L10n | Localization |
| 177 | LAN | Local Area Network |
| 178 | LCD | Liquid-Crystal Display |
| 179 | LED | Light-Emitting Diode |
| 180 | LF | Line Feed |
| 181 | LGTM | Looks Good to Me |
| 182 | LIFO | Last In, First Out (see FIFO) |
| 183 | Lisp | List Processing |
| 184 | LLM | Large Language Model |
| 185 | LOC | Lines of Code |
| 186 | LTR | Left-To-Right (see RTL) |
| 187 | LTS | Long-Term Support |
| 188 | MAC | Message Authentication Code |
| 189 | Mb | Megabit |
| 190 | MB | Megabyte |
| 191 | Mbps | Megabits per second |
| 192 | MD | Markdown |
| 193 | MDN | Mozilla Developer Network |
| 194 | MFA | Multi-Factor Authentication |
| 195 | MIT | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 196 | MMD | MultiMarkdown |
| 197 | MOOC | Massive Open Online Courses |
| 198 | MR | Merge Request |
| 199 | MVC | Model-View-Controller |
| 200 | MVP | Minimum Viable Product |
| 201 | MVVM | Model-View-ViewModel |
| 202 | NAS | Network-Attached Storage |
| 203 | NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| 204 | NFA | Nondeterministic Finite Automaton |
| 205 | NFSA | Nondeterministic Finite-State Automaton |
| 206 | NFSM | Nondeterministic Finite-State Machine |
| 207 | NLP | Natural Language Processing |
| 208 | NoSQL | Not Only SQL |
| 209 | npm | Node Package Manager |
| 210 | NPS | Net Promoter Score |
| 211 | NVM | Node Version Manager |
| 212 | OCI | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure |
| 213 | OFL | Open Font License |
| 214 | OKR | Objectives and Key Results |
| 215 | OMG | Object Management Group |
| 216 | OOA | Object-Oriented Analysis |
| 217 | OOD | Object-Oriented Design |
| 218 | OOP | Object-Oriented Programming |
| 219 | ORM | Object-Relational Mapping |
| 220 | OS | Operating System |
| 221 | OSI | Open Systems Interconnection |
| 222 | OTP | One-Time Password |
| 223 | OWASP | Open Worldwide Application Security Project |
| 224 | PaaS | Platform as a Service |
| 225 | PC | Personal Computer |
| 226 | PHP | PHP Hypertext Preprocessor |
| 227 | PII | Personal Identifiable Information |
| 228 | POC | Proof Of Concept |
| 229 | PM | Product Manager |
| 230 | PM | Project Manager |
| 231 | PO | Product Owner |
| 232 | POC | Proof of Concept |
| 233 | PR | Pull Request |
| 234 | PX | Pixel |
| 235 | PW | Password |
| 236 | QA | Quality Assurance |
| 237 | QOL | Quality of Life |
| 238 | RAID | Redundant Array of Independent Disks |
| 239 | RAM | Random Access Memory |
| 240 | RBAC | Role-Based Access Control |
| 241 | RDBMS | Relational Database Management System |
| 242 | RE | Regular Expression |
| 243 | REPL | Read-Eval-Print Loop |
| 244 | REST | Representational State Transfer |
| 245 | RFC | Request for Comments |
| 246 | RGB | Red Green Blue |
| 247 | RGBA | Red Green Blue Alpha |
| 248 | RHF | React Hook Form |
| 249 | RMS | Richard Matthew Stallman |
| 250 | RN | React Native |
| 251 | ROI | Return on Investment |
| 252 | RoR | Ruby on Rails |
| 253 | ROM | Read-Only Memory |
| 254 | RSS | Really Simple Syndication |
| 255 | RTF | Rich Text Format |
| 256 | RTFM | Read the Fucking Manual |
| 257 | RTK | Redux Toolkit |
| 258 | RTL | Right-To-Left (see LTR) |
| 259 | RTL | React Testing Library |
| 260 | RWD | Responsive Web Design |
| 261 | SaaS | Software as a Service |
| 262 | SAN | Storage Area Network |
| 263 | Sass | Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets |
| 264 | SDK | Software Development Kit |
| 265 | SERP | Search Engine Result Page |
| 266 | SFC | Single-File Component |
| 267 | SHA | Secure Hash Algorithm |
| 268 | SICP | Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs |
| 269 | SIP | System Integrity Protection |
| 270 | SLOC | Source Lines of Code |
| 271 | SME | Subject Matter Expert |
| 272 | SMIL | Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language |
| 273 | SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol |
| 274 | SOAP | Simple Object Access Protocol |
| 275 | SoC | System on a Chip |
| 276 | SPA | Single-Page Application |
| 277 | SRE | Site Reliability Engineering |
| 278 | SSD | Solid-State Drive |
| 279 | SSG | Static Site Generator |
| 280 | SSH | Secure Shell |
| 281 | SSL | Secure Sockets Layer |
| 282 | SSO | Single Sign-On |
| 283 | SSR | Server-Side Rendering |
| 284 | SUD | System Under Discussion |
| 285 | SUT | System Under Test |
| 286 | SQL | Structured Query Language |
| 287 | STEM | Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics |
| 288 | SUC | System Use-Case |
| 289 | SUS | System Usability Scale |
| 290 | SVG | Scalable Vector Graphics |
| 291 | SVN | Apache Subversion |
| 292 | SWE | Software Engineer |
| 293 | TB | Terabyte |
| 294 | TCP | Transmission Control Protocol |
| 295 | TDD | Test-Driven Development |
| 296 | TDZ | Temporal Dead Zone |
| 297 | TOC | Table of Contents |
| 298 | TS | TypeScript |
| 299 | tsc | TypeScript Compiler |
| 300 | TSV | Tab-Separated Values |
| 301 | TTFB | Time to First Byte |
| 302 | TUI | Text-based User Interface |
| 303 | UCD | User-Centered Design |
| 304 | UDP | User Datagram Protocol |
| 305 | UEFI | Unified Extensible Firmware Interface |
| 306 | UI | User Interface |
| 307 | UID | Unique Identifier |
| 308 | UMD | Universal Module Definition |
| 309 | UML | Unified Modeling Language |
| 310 | UNIVAC | Universal Automatic Computer |
| 311 | URI | Uniform Resource Identifier |
| 312 | URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
| 313 | USB | Universal Serial Bus |
| 314 | UTC | Universal Time Coordinated |
| 315 | UTF | Unicode Transformation Format |
| 316 | UUID | Universally Unique Identifier |
| 317 | UX | User Experience |
| 318 | UXD | User Experience Design |
| 319 | UXR | User Experience Research |
| 320 | VCS | Version Control System |
| 321 | VDOM | Virtual DOM |
| 322 | VFS | Virtual File System |
| 323 | VM | Virtual Machine |
| 324 | VPN | Virtual Private Network |
| 325 | VPS | Virtual Private Server |
| 326 | W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
| 327 | WAF | Web Application Firewall |
| 328 | Wasm | WebAssembly |
| 329 | Wi-Fi | Wireless Fidelity |
| 330 | WIP | Work In Progress |
| 331 | WLAN | Wireless Local Area Network |
| 332 | WLB | Work-Life Balance |
| 333 | WP | WordPress |
| 334 | WSJF | Weighted Shortest Job First |
| 335 | WSL | Windows Subsystem for Linux |
| 336 | WTF | What the fuck |
| 337 | WWW | World Wide Web |
| 338 | WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
| 339 | XHR | XMLHttpRequest |
| 340 | XHTML | Extensible HyperText Markup Language |
| 341 | XML | Extensible Markup Language |
| 342 | XP | Extreme Programming |
| 343 | YAGNI | You Aren't Gonna Need It |
| 344 | YAML | YAML Ain't Markup Language |
| 345 | YML | Yandex Market Language |
| 346 | YOE | Years of Experience |