Footnotes are often used to explain text or to give a bibliographical source for a piece of text. If you are writing a research paper, you might want to know some footnote abbreviations. Following are lists of abbreviations and their explanations.

Common Footnote Abbreviations

Many footnote abbreviations have a Latin origin and are still used today. You will find these abbreviations in bibliographies and references pages.

Here is a list of the most common footnote abbreviations:

anon. - anonymous
ante. - before
ca. or c. (circa) - around a given date
cf. - confer
ch. or chs. - chapter or chapters
ed. or eds. - edition, edited by, or editors
et al. - and others
et seq. - and the following
Ibid. or ibidem - "in the same place"
j. or ff. - following page or pages
l. or ll. - line or lines
loc. cit. or loco citato - in the place cited
ms, mss - manuscript or manuscripts
n.d. - no date
n. p. - no place of publication
op. cit. or opere citato - in the work cited
p. or pp. - page or pages
passim - all over, here and there
q.v. or quod vide - go to another place
rev. - revised
trans. or tr. - translated
v. inf. or vide infra - see below
v. sup or vide supra - see above
vol. or vols. - volume or volumes

The format used for the footnote abbreviation depends on the style selected for the document. APA, the style provided by the American Psychological Association, is a commonly-used style for social science research papers; however, the preferred format may be different based on the instutution or company.