UK

See also: Appendix:Variations of "uk"

Translingual

Symbol

UK

1. (international standards) Exceptionally reserved ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for the United Kingdom.

   Synonym: GB (for general use)

2. (license plate codes) United Kingdom

   Coordinate terms: GBG (“Guernsey”), GBJ (“Jersey”), GBM (“Isle of Man”), GBZ (“Gibraltar”)

Usage notes

This is an exceptionally reserved code, included as part of ISO 3166-1 on the request of the United Kingdom, and is not endorsed for general use by the ISO. The general-purpose code for the United Kingdom is GB.

English

Alternative forms

• U.K.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /juːˈkeɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Proper noun

UK or the UK

2. Initialism of United Kingdom [from 1883]
   • 1990 December 11, Lucretia, “Last-Minute X-mas Blues?”, in The Guardian, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16:

     Delivered anywhere in UK before X-mas Day!

   • 2021 October 14, Jack Guy, “UK bakery banned from using sprinkles which are legal in the US”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 December 2021:

     The sprinkles had the red food coloring E127, or erythrosine. E127 is only permitted for use in cocktail cherries and candied cherries in the UK and the EU, according to a statement from West Yorkshire Trading Standards sent to CNN Thursday.

4. Initialism of University of Kentucky

   Synonyms: UKY, Kentucky

   Coordinate terms: KSU, Kentucky State (not to be confused)

Usage notes

With the exception of newspaper headlines, UK will almost always be preceded by the definite article in British English, e.g. "I am in the UK". In Indian English, the definite article is often dropped, e.g. "I am in UK", "Come to UK", "We go UK". The absence of the definite article can sometimes act as a shibboleth in written English.

Derived terms

• AUKUS
• UK dubstep
• UK hardcore
• yookay

Descendants

• → Ukrainian: ЮКе́й (JuKéj)

Translations

abbreviation of United Kingdom — see also United Kingdom

• Arabic: not used in Arabic
• Armenian: ՄԹ (hy) (MTʻ)
• Belarusian: not used in Belarusian
• Burmese: not used in Burmese
• Catalan: RU (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: not used in Mandarin

• Dutch: VK (nl) n
• French: R.-U. m, RU (fr) m
• German: VK (de) n
• Greek: ΗΒ (el) n (IV)
• Italian: RU (it) m
• Japanese: not used in Japanese
• Khmer: not used in Khmer
• Korean: not used in Korean
• Lao: not used in Lao
• Lithuanian: JK f
• Malay: UK (ms)
• Persian: not used in Persian
• Portuguese: RU (pt) m
• Romanian: R.U. n, RU n
• Russian: not used in Russian
• Spanish: R.U. m, RU m
• Swedish: not used in Swedish
• Thai: not used in Thai
• Tigrinya: ዩኬይ (yukey)
• Ukrainian: not used in Ukrainian
• Urdu: برط (BRT)
• Vietnamese: not used in Vietnamese
• Welsh: y DU f

See also

• United Kingdom of Great Britain
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• British Isles

Proper noun

UK

1. Initialism of Uttarakhand.

Anagrams

• KU, Ku

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /u ko/, [uˈko], [ˈuko]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o, -uko
• Syllabification: u ko

Proper noun

UK (accusative singular UK-on or UK-n or UK, plural UK-oj or UK-j, accusative plural UK-ojn or UK-jn)

1. initialism of Universala Kongreso de Esperanto (“World Esperanto Congress”)

Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈu.ka/, [ˈu.ka]

Proper noun

UK

1. Initialism of United Kingdom.

Noun

UK (plural UK-UK)

1. (education, management) initialism of uji kompetensi
2. (education) initialism of uji kesetaraan

Further reading

• “UK”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016