Abbreviation

The term abbreviation comes from the Latin abbreviatūra. It is the shortened or contracted form of a word , consisting of one or more letters of that word, followed by a period , which consists of shortening a word by deleting final or central letters, and which, as a general rule, ends with a Score. For example : Mr. (for “sir”), Dr. (for “doctor”). While these abbreviations (and many others) are in massive use and have taken on a conventional form, anyone writing can create an abbreviation for their own personal use. When a writer does this, he usually includes a glossary at the beginning or end of his work where he explains the particular abbreviations he used. There are two modes of abbreviation: by truncation or by contraction. The abbreviation by truncation consists of eliminating the final part of the word (Av. for “avenue”, etc. for “etc.”). The contraction abbreviation, however, consists of eliminating the central letters of the word, leaving only the most representative ones (Avda. for “avenida”, algv. for “Algarvio” and cfr. for “confront”). There are abbreviations that can end in bold/highlighted letters, such as n.º (for “number”). On the other hand , there are abbreviations in which the full stop of a word is replaced by a slash (c/c for “current account”, cm/s for “centimeter per second”). It should be noted that, according to the spelling rule, abbreviations must maintain the graphic accent of the original word (page for “PG”).

Asia

With its 44,936,000 km², Asia is the largest continent of all. It covers a third of the earth's surface and more than half of the planet's population lives there. Asia is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean; to the east with the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean; to the south with the Indian Ocean, and to the southwest with the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, the conventional border between Europe and Asia is marked by the Urals and extends southward along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, and westward through the Caucasus to the Black Sea. Many areas of Asia are economically underdeveloped. A high percentage of the continent's population is engaged in agriculture, despite much of the agricultural activity is characterized by relatively low harvests and labor productivity. As of 2022, there are 48 countries in Asia. See a full list of all countries: Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma Cyprus Georgia Hong Kong India Indonesia Iraq Iran Israel Japan Yemen Jordan Cambodia Kazakhstan China Kyrgyzstan Kuwait Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal North Korea Oman Pakistan Palestine Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka South Korea Syria Tajikistan Taiwan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan UAE Uzbekistan Vietnam Timor Middle East >>

Africa

It is believed that the south or east of Africa is the cradle of humanity and from there come the successive species of Hominids and Anthropoids that gave rise to human beings and that have been expanding throughout the rest of the continents, including Homo Sapiens. about 190,000 years ago. For the most part, Africa is a huge and ancient solid and compact continental shelf, elevated between 600 and 800 meters above sea level, crossed by large rivers (although few) and scarce in peninsulas. It stands out for its orographic regularity and considerable average altitude. Three successive climatic bands are repeated to the north and south of Ecuador, encompassing the Mediterranean, Desert, Subtropical and Rainy Intertropical climates, the latter, in its two main types, both savanna and jungle. Africa is the continent with the highest annual index of insolation, which could have given rise to its name (Africa, from the Latin 'without cold'). The soils are exceptionally rich in minerals and very suitable for grazing where the Tsetse Fly does not proliferate. The main cultivated areas are in the eastern highlands and the Great Lakes area, some deltas and riverbanks, and even in the Sahel. Politically, Africa is made up of 53 independent countries, 17 dependencies and 5 unrecognized territories. See all countries: Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Central African Republic Comoros Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Ivory Coast Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea Bissau Cameroon Cape Verde Kenya Congo Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Morocco Mauritania Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia Sudan Swaziland South Africa South Sudan Tanzania Chad Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe >>

Acronym

An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a phrase or expression. In some cases, not all words are considered, but only the most important terms (nouns, verbs and adjectives). In this way, secondary terms (conjunctions, prepositions, etc.) are left out. OAS is an example of an acronym: it is the acronym that corresponds to the expression Organization of American States. As can be seen, the acronym takes the initial letters of three words (Organization – States – Americans) and omits the mention of the other two words (the preposition “de” and the article “los”). Other acronyms, on the other hand, mention the initial letters of all the words that make up the expression: GDP (Gross Domestic Product), SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), IOC (International Olympic Committee) and RAE ( Real Academia Española) are some examples of this type of acronym. When the acronym starts to be pronounced as if it were a word, it is defined as an acronym. This happens with the aforementioned acronym SME, which is currently written as such, since it is used as a noun. In this way, a person can say “I have an SME dedicated to the production of audiovisual content”, referring to the fact that they own a small or medium-sized company. Laser is also a word that was born as an acronym in the English language (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and which has become a term accepted by Portuguese-language dictionaries: “The intervention is carried out with a laser”, “I was recommended of laser hair removal”.

Europe

The term "Europe" has various uses, the main ones being geographical and political in nature. Geographically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, limited to the North, West and South by the Atlantic Ocean and its surrounding seas; (Baltic Sea, sea of the North, Mediterranean Sea, Marmara Sea and Black Sea) and to the east of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea and the mountains of the Caucasus. Sometimes the European Union is erroneously equated with Europe, despite the fact that not all European countries belong to the integrationist organization. The European continent is made up of 50 independent states, including the Central Asian and Caucasian republics belonging to the former USSR, while the European Union has only 27 member states. See all countries in Europe: Albania Andorra Belgium Austria Belarus Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Iceland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Switzerland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain United Kingdom Sweden Ukraine Vatican City European Union >>

America and Oceania

The term Oceania covers a macro-geographic region located between Asia and America, with the Australian island as the largest continental mass, followed by the much smaller and nearby islands of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, to which some 25,000 small islands are added, scattered in the Pacific. The name "Oceania" is used because, unlike the other continents, this one is made up mainly of the Pacific Ocean and the various adjacent seas. The territories of Oceania extend from Southeast Asia through the Pacific Ocean to America. With its extension of 9,008,458 km² it is the smallest continent in the world. It is bathed by the Indian, Antarctic and Pacific Glacier Oceans, and separated from Asia by the Timor and Arafura Seas, with a total of 25,760 km of coastline. The climate is strongly influenced by ocean currents, including El Niño, which causes periodic droughts, and the low-pressure tropical seasonal system, which produces cyclones in northern Australia. The desert or semi-arid region is the largest: 40% of its territory is covered by sand dunes. Oceania is the driest, flattest continent, with the oldest and least fertile soils. Curiously, the highest mountain in the country, Mount Mawson (2,745 m), is not found on the island of Australia itself, but is located on the small Heard Island, in the southern Indian Ocean. Mount Kosciuszko, at 2,228 m, is the main elevation of the Island of Australia. See all countries: Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Falkland Islands Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela South America Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Montserrat Nicaragua Panama Puerto Rico St. Christopher and Nevis St. Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago USA Caribbean >>