mcg

See also: MCG

Translingual

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mey-der.?

Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós)

Ancient Greek μῑκρο- (mīkro-)lbor.

English micro-abbr.

Translingual mc-

English gramabbr.

Translingual g

Translingual mcg

From mc- (“micro-”) + g (“gram”).

Symbol

mcg

2. (metrology) Symbol for microgram, an SI unit of mass equal to 10⁻⁶ grams.

   Synonyms: µg, microg (English), ug

Usage notes

• This abbreviation is used in the medical field instead of the standard abbreviation μg to avoid the chance that in handwritten dosing instructions it would be misread as mg (“milligram”) resulting in 1000 times the intended dose.

Etymology 2

Initialism of English Mapoyo, Carib with g as a placeholder.

Symbol

mcg

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Mapoyo.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Mapoyo terms