HR
Abbreviation with 7 meanings
| Stands for | Heart rate |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 7 |
| Categories | Medical, Units & Measurements, Business & Finance, Sports, Government & Politics, Geography & Places |
| Also written | H.R., hr |
HR has seven meanings. The most common are Heart rate (patient assessment) and Hour (time); it can also stand for Human resources, Home run, House of Representatives (bill prefix), Hazard ratio and Croatia.
Meanings of HR at a glance
| # | HR stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heart rate | Medical › Patient Assessment |
| 2 | Hour | Units & Measurements › Time |
| 3 | Human resources | Business & Finance › Human Resources |
| 4 | Home run | Sports › Baseball |
| 5 | House of Representatives (bill prefix) | Government & Politics › Political |
| 6 | Hazard ratio | Medical › Medical Research |
| 7 | Croatia | Geography & Places › Country Code |
1. Heart rate
Medical · Patient Assessment Abbreviations
Number of heartbeats per minute, measured from a pulse, cardiac monitor or ECG. Adults at rest usually fall between 60 and 100 beats per minute; children and infants run faster.
Example: HR 132 sinus tachycardia, febrile 39.1, fluid bolus started.
Heart rate and pulse rate usually match, but they can differ when some beats are too weak to be felt, called a pulse deficit, as in atrial fibrillation. Well-trained athletes commonly have resting rates in the 40s or 50s. Smartwatch readings are useful trends but not a substitute for a clinical measurement.
2. Hour (hr)
Units & Measurements · Time Abbreviations
The most common abbreviation for hour in American everyday writing, used for business hours, parking rates, wages, rentals and medical notes. Its plural is usually hrs.
Example: Parking: $3 per hr, maximum $18 per day.
Style guides differ: the AP Stylebook generally spells out hour, while technical and scientific writing prefers the SI symbol h. Job listings write hourly wages as $/hr, as in $22/hr. Uppercase HR more often means human resources, heart rate or home run, so context decides.
3. Human resources
Business & Finance · Human Resources Abbreviations
Business function responsible for recruiting, pay and benefits, onboarding, training, performance management, employee relations and compliance with employment law. The term covers both the department and, more broadly, the people who work for an organization.
Example: Please send your signed offer letter and direct deposit form to HR by Friday.
"Human resources" largely replaced the older "personnel department" from the 1970s onward, and many tech companies now say "People Operations" or "People team." The largest professional body, the Society for Human Resource Management, was founded in 1948 as the American Society for Personnel Administration and took its current name in 1989. Pronounced as letters. In baseball, HR means home run, and in medicine heart rate.
4. Home run
Sports · Baseball Abbreviations
Hit on which the batter circles all the bases and scores, usually by hitting the ball over the outfield fence in fair territory; an inside-the-park home run stays in play. HR is the headline power statistic in baseball.
Example: Ohtani's 54 HR in 2024 set a Dodgers franchise record.
Barry Bonds holds the career record (762) and the single-season record (73 in 2001); Aaron Judge's 62 in 2022 set the American League mark. Also called a homer, dinger, blast or "four-bagger". Outside baseball, HR usually means human resources, or heart rate in medicine.
5. House of Representatives (bill prefix) (H.R.)
Government & Politics · Political Abbreviations
Prefix for bills introduced in the US House of Representatives, followed by a number, as in "H.R. 1". Numbers are assigned in order of introduction and restart with each two-year Congress, so a full citation includes the Congress number.
Example: H.R. 3684 passed the Senate in August 2021 and was signed into law in November.
The number alone does not identify a bill: H.R. 1 of the 117th Congress differs from H.R. 1 of the 119th. The majority often reserves low numbers such as H.R. 1 for its top priorities. Once enacted, a bill becomes a public law with a number such as Pub. L. 117-58. House resolutions use a different prefix, H.Res.
6. Hazard ratio
Medical · Medical Research Abbreviations · also used in measurement
Ratio of instantaneous event rates in two groups over time, estimated in survival analysis, usually with a Cox proportional hazards model. An HR of 0.70 means the treated group experienced events at about 70 percent of the rate of the control group throughout follow-up.
Example: Overall survival HR 0.68 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.84) favoring the immunotherapy arm.
The hazard ratio assumes the relative effect is roughly constant over time (proportional hazards), an assumption violated when survival curves cross. An HR is not the same as a relative risk at a fixed time point, although the two are often close. In vital signs HR means heart rate.
7. Croatia
Geography & Places · Country Code Abbreviations
Croatia's code comes from Hrvatska, its own name, and the alpha-3 code is HRV. Zagreb is the capital; Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and adopted both the euro and Schengen membership on January 1, 2023.
Example: Croatian IBANs begin with HR and contain 21 characters.
Sports bodies use CRO for Croatia. In English HR far more often means human resources, so a field labeled HR needs context. Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian coast are the country's best-known destinations.
Related abbreviations
More patient assessment abbreviations
- FLACC – Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability
- GCS – Glasgow Coma Scale
- HC – Head circumference
- HEENT – Head, eyes, ears, nose, throat
- Ht – Height
- LAD – Lymphadenopathy
- LLE – Left lower extremity
- LOC – Level of consciousness
See all 65 patient assessment abbreviations →
More time abbreviations
- h – Hour
- H1 – First half
- H2 – Second half
- hh:mm:ss – Hours:minutes:seconds
- hrs – Hours (military time)
- ISO 8601 – International date and time standard (ISO 8601)
- JD – Julian date (Julian Day number)
- kya – Thousand years ago
See all 51 time abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.