AZ
Abbreviation with 4 meanings
| Stands for | Arizona |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 4 |
| Categories | Geography & Places, Transportation & Travel, Technology & Computing |
AZ has four meanings. The most common are Arizona (US state) and ITA Airways (airline code); it can also stand for Azerbaijan and Availability zone.
Meanings of AZ at a glance
| # | AZ stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | Geography & Places › US State |
| 2 | ITA Airways | Transportation & Travel › Airline Code |
| 3 | Azerbaijan | Geography & Places › Country Code |
| 4 | Availability zone | Technology & Computing › Cloud Computing |
1. Arizona
Geography & Places · US State Abbreviations
The Grand Canyon State became the 48th state on February 14, 1912, the last of the contiguous 48 to join. Phoenix is both capital and largest city, and most of Arizona stays on standard time all year, the Navajo Nation in the northeast being the main exception.
Example: Flight deals from Chicago to Phoenix, AZ start at $129 this spring.
Ariz. is the AP and traditional form, kept for datelines and labels such as D-Ariz. but spelled out in running text. AZ entered use with the 1963 two-letter system. Because Alaska is AK and Arkansas AR, the four A-codes are easy to scramble, and in international data AZ means Azerbaijan.
2. ITA Airways
Transportation & Travel · Airline Code Abbreviations
Italian national airline, based at Rome Fiumicino, which replaced the bankrupt Alitalia in October 2021. Lufthansa acquired a 41 percent stake in 2025, bringing ITA into the Lufthansa Group.
Example: ITA AZ 609 from JFK lands at Rome Fiumicino in the morning.
ICAO code ITY; callsign "Itarrow." ITA bought the Alitalia brand and the AZ code that Alitalia had used for decades. The Lufthansa deal required EU approval and route concessions. ITA left SkyTeam in 2025 and moved to Star Alliance in 2026 as part of the Lufthansa integration.
3. Azerbaijan
Geography & Places · Country Code Abbreviations
Two-letter code of Azerbaijan, the oil- and gas-rich republic on the Caspian Sea whose capital, Baku, hosts a Formula 1 street race. The alpha-3 code is AZE, and the manat trades as AZN.
Example: The Baku Formula 1 tickets were billed to an address in AZ.
In US addresses AZ is Arizona, a frequent source of misrouted parcels. The language code for Azerbaijani is also az.
4. Availability zone
Technology & Computing · Cloud Computing Abbreviations
One or more physically separate data centers within a cloud region, each with independent power, cooling and networking, linked to the other zones by low-latency connections. Spreading servers across AZs protects applications from a single facility failure.
Example: Run at least two replicas in different AZs so a power outage in one data center doesn't take us down.
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud all use zones, though designs differ, and most regions have three or more. Traffic between zones usually incurs small data transfer charges. On AWS, zone names such as us-east-1a can map to different physical zones in different accounts. AZ is also the postal abbreviation for Arizona.
Related abbreviations
More US state abbreviations
- AK – Alaska
- AL – Alabama
- AR – Arkansas
- CA – California
- CO – Colorado
- CT – Connecticut
- DC – District of Columbia
- DE – Delaware
See all 51 US state abbreviations →