BK
Abbreviation with 5 meanings
| Stands for | Burger King |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 5 |
| Categories | Organizations & Companies, Geography & Places, Writing & Everyday, Sports, Science & Engineering |
| Also written | Bk, bk. |
BK has five meanings. The most common are Burger King (company and brand) and Brooklyn (city and neighborhood); it can also stand for Book, Balk and Berkelium.
Meanings of BK at a glance
| # | BK stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Burger King | Organizations & Companies › Company and Brand |
| 2 | Brooklyn | Geography & Places › City and Neighborhood |
| 3 | Book | Writing & Everyday › Citation and Bibliography |
| 4 | Balk | Sports › Baseball |
| 5 | Berkelium | Science & Engineering › Chemical Element |
1. Burger King
Organizations & Companies · Company and Brand Abbreviations
American fast-food hamburger chain known for its flame-grilled Whopper, with restaurants in more than 100 countries. It is owned by Restaurant Brands International and headquartered in Miami.
Example: The new BK value menu starts at five dollars.
Founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King; franchisees James McLamore and David Edgerton took over in 1954 in Miami. The Whopper was introduced in 1957. Restaurant Brands International was formed in 2014 when Burger King merged with Canada's Tim Hortons. The company itself uses "BK" in its logo, apps and ads.
2. Brooklyn
Geography & Places · City and Neighborhood Abbreviations
Most populous New York City borough, with about 2.7 million people, an independent city until it joined Greater New York in 1898. BK appears in local slang, music and business names.
Example: The new BK restaurant takes no reservations and the line starts at 5 p.m.
If Brooklyn were still an independent city, it would rank among the largest in the US. BK also abbreviates Burger King. The borough's official motto is Eendraght Maeckt Maght, Dutch for unity makes strength.
3. Book (bk.)
Writing & Everyday · Citation and Bibliography Abbreviations
Identifies a numbered book, a major division within a long work, in citations of epics, histories and classical texts, as in "bk. 2." A book is larger than a chapter and may contain several.
Example: Milton's Satan addresses the fallen angels in Paradise Lost, bk. 2, which opens with their debate in Pandemonium.
Classical works such as Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid are divided into books, and citations often give book and line numbers in compact form, such as 4.360. MLA recommends such division numbers rather than page numbers for verse classics available in many editions. The plural is bks.
4. Balk
Sports · Baseball Abbreviations
Illegal motion by the pitcher with runners on base, such as stopping partway through the delivery or failing to come set, which lets each runner advance one base. Balks prevent pitchers from deceiving baserunners.
Example: The umpire called a BK, waving the runner home from third.
Balk rules have 13 listed violations in the official rules. Bob Shaw committed five balks in one game in 1963, the major league record. An emphasis on enforcement in 1988 produced a record number of balks that season.
5. Berkelium (Bk)
Science & Engineering · Chemical Element Abbreviations
Berkelium (element 97) is a synthetic actinide produced only in tiny quantities in high-flux reactors. Its one significant use is as a target for making heavier elements: berkelium-249 produced at Oak Ridge was bombarded with calcium ions at Dubna to create tennessine in 2010.
Example: The Bk target was flown from Tennessee to Russia quickly because the isotope steadily decays.
Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso and Glenn Seaborg made berkelium in December 1949 by bombarding americium-241 with alpha particles in Berkeley's cyclotron. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, by analogy with terbium above it, named after the village of Ytterby. Berkelium-249 has a half-life of about 330 days, so target material must be used within months of production.
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