AP Style vs USPS State Abbreviations: When to Spell It Out
Write “I live in Austin, TX” in a news story and an editor will correct you. Write “Austin, Tex.” on an envelope and the post office will not care — but it will not help your letter either. America has two different systems for shortening state names, and they disagree about almost everything: the Associated Press (AP) style used by newsrooms, and the two-letter postal codes used by the post office. Mix them up and you look wrong in both worlds. This guide explains which system to use where, why eight states are never abbreviated at all, and what changed in 2014 that most people still have not noticed.
Play the US States Abbreviations Quiz
Two Systems, One Country
The postal codes are the ones everybody knows: CA, TX, NY, FL — two capital letters, no periods, born in October 1963 when the post office needed state names to fit on a 23-character address line next to the new ZIP code. AP style is older and stranger: it shortens states with a mix of two, three and four letters, always with periods — Calif., N.Y., Mass., Wyo. — and it refuses to shorten eight states at all. The two systems exist for different jobs. The postal codes exist for machines and envelopes. AP style exists for readers: a news story should read smoothly, and “Calif.” reads better in a dateline than “CA” does in a sentence. The golden rule is simple once you see it: postal codes belong only in a full mailing address with a ZIP code. Everywhere else, AP rules apply — and AP mostly wants the name spelled out.
What AP Changed in 2014
Here is the change most people missed. Before 2014, AP style said to abbreviate a state name when it followed a city in the body of a story: “Austin, Texas” became “Austin, Tex.” in print, and “Denver, Colo.” was the standard form. In 2014 the Stylebook changed the rule completely: since then, AP spells out the names of all fifty states in the body of a story, whether the state stands alone or follows a city. “Austin, Texas” is now correct in AP style, and “Austin, Tex.” in running text is wrong. The abbreviations did not disappear — they moved. AP still uses them, but only in datelines, lists, tables, captions and credit lines: the short labels at the top of a story, not the sentences inside it. So a story datelined “AUSTIN, Texas” is right, a table listing “Calif.” is right, and a sentence saying “she moved to Calif.” is wrong. If you learned the old rule at school, you learned a rule that stopped being true a decade ago.
The Eight States That Are Never Abbreviated
Even in datelines, eight states are never abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. There is a neat way to remember them. Two are the states outside the contiguous United States — Alaska and Hawaii. The other six are the states whose names have five letters or fewer: Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. Short names do not need shortening, so AP does not shorten them — ever, anywhere, not even in a dateline. That is why the dateline is “AUSTIN, Texas” and “DES MOINES, Iowa”, with the state spelled out in full, while Denver gets “DENVER, Colo.” and Sacramento gets “SACRAMENTO, Calif.” The eight are also the free points in the abbreviations quiz: if a question offers “Tex.” or “TX” as an AP answer, it is wrong by definition, because Texas is never abbreviated in AP style. Learn the eight as one group and a whole category of trick questions disappears.
Where the Postal Codes Actually Belong
The two-letter codes have exactly one correct home: a complete mailing address, with the city, the code and the ZIP code together. “1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043” is the postal code used correctly. “I drove through CA last summer” is the postal code used wrongly — in running text, AP wants “California” spelled out. The same applies to forms and databases, which are really addresses in disguise: a form field labelled “State” expects the two-letter code because the form is built like an address. But the moment you are writing sentences, the code should disappear. This is the most common mistake Americans make with their own abbreviations: the codes are so familiar from envelopes that people use them everywhere, and in formal writing that reads as sloppy. Newsrooms, publishers and universities follow AP on this, so if you are writing for any of them, spell the state out and save the code for the envelope.
Datelines: The One Place AP Still Abbreviates
Datelines are the exception that proves the rule. A dateline is the city-and-state label at the top of a news story — “SACRAMENTO, Calif.” — and it is the one place in running text where AP abbreviations still live. The dateline forms are their own little language: Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kan., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Neb., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.M., N.Y., N.C., N.D., Okla., Ore., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.D., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis. and Wyo. Notice the pattern: most are the first few letters of the state with a period, but the multi-word states get initials with periods — N.Y., N.J., N.C., S.C., W.Va. — and the eight never-abbreviated states simply appear in full. A few cities are so well known that they stand alone with no state at all: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco need no state in a dateline. Everything else gets the city in capitals, then the state in AP form — or spelled out, if it is one of the eight.
| State | USPS code | AP dateline |
|---|---|---|
| California | CA | Calif. |
| New York | NY | N.Y. |
| Texas | TX | Texas (never abbreviated) |
| Ohio | OH | Ohio (never abbreviated) |
| Massachusetts | MA | Mass. |
| Mississippi | MS | Miss. |
| Wyoming | WY | Wyo. |
| Alaska | AK | Alaska (never abbreviated) |
How to Remember It
Three rules cover almost everything. One: in sentences, spell the state out — AP has wanted that since 2014. Two: in a full address with a ZIP code, use the two-letter postal code and nothing else. Three: the eight never-abbreviated states — Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, Utah — are spelled out everywhere, always. If you remember the eight, you already know the hardest part of both systems: the postal codes are for envelopes, the AP forms are for datelines, and the eight are for nowhere but the full name. Test yourself on the codes first — twenty timed rounds, both directions, trap pairs included — and the AP rules will feel obvious by comparison, because the codes are the foundation everything else is built on.
Should I write CA or California in a sentence?
California. AP style spells out all state names in the body of a story since 2014. The two-letter code belongs only in a full mailing address with a ZIP code.
Which states are never abbreviated in AP style?
Eight: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. Alaska and Hawaii are outside the contiguous United States, and the other six have names of five letters or fewer.
What is the AP abbreviation for California?
Calif. — but only in datelines, lists, tables, captions and credit lines. In running text, AP spells out California.
Can I use TX in a dateline?
No. Texas is one of the eight never-abbreviated states, so the dateline is “AUSTIN, Texas” with the state spelled out in full.
Are postal codes and AP abbreviations the same thing?
No. Postal codes are two capital letters with no periods (CA, NY, TX), made for envelopes in 1963. AP abbreviations are a different set (Calif., N.Y., Mass.) made for news datelines — and AP mostly spells states out now anyway.
Two systems, one simple habit: spell it out in sentences, use the code on the envelope, and never shorten the eight. Once the fifty postal codes are yours, the AP rules fall into place on their own — and the free us states quiz map game is the best place to practise the states themselves next.