Mar
Abbreviation with 4 meanings
| Stands for | March |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 4 |
| Categories | Units & Measurements, Medical, Education & Academia |
| Also written | MAR |
Mar has four meanings. The most common are March (month) and Medication administration record (pharmacy); it can also stand for Missing at random and Master of Arts in Religion.
Meanings of Mar at a glance
| # | Mar stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | March | Units & Measurements › Month |
| 2 | Medication administration record | Medical › Pharmacy |
| 3 | Missing at random | Units & Measurements › Statistics |
| 4 | Master of Arts in Religion | Education & Academia › Degree |
1. March
Units & Measurements · Month Abbreviations
Named for Mars, the Roman god of war, March has 31 days and was the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. That old starting point is why September through December carry names meaning seventh through tenth.
Example: Spring semester midterms run Mar 9 to Mar 13.
AP style never abbreviates March, so Mar appears mainly in calendars, tables, charts and software date formats (Mar 2026). The March equinox, around March 20, marks the start of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March in the US and on the last Sunday in March in the EU.
2. Medication administration record (MAR)
Medical · Pharmacy Abbreviations
Legal record of every medication ordered, scheduled, given, held or refused for a hospital or nursing-home patient. In most hospitals it is electronic (eMAR) and is built from orders after pharmacist verification.
Example: MAR shows the 0900 vancomycin as not given; pharmacy re-sent the dose.
Pharmacists review the MAR to check doses actually received, missed doses and PRN use before adjusting therapy. Pairing an eMAR with bedside barcode scanning lowered non-timing administration errors by roughly 40 percent in a widely cited 2010 hospital study. Paper MARs remain common in some long-term care settings.
3. Missing at random (MAR)
Units & Measurements · Statistics Abbreviations
A missing-data mechanism in which the probability of missingness depends only on observed data, not on the missing values themselves. Multiple imputation and maximum likelihood methods give valid results under MAR.
Example: Assuming MAR, missing income values were filled in by multiple imputation using age, education and region.
The name misleads, because MAR data are not missing randomly in the everyday sense; missingness may depend on observed variables. When it depends on the unobserved values themselves, data are MNAR (missing not at random), which calls for sensitivity analysis. On calendars, Mar means March.
4. Master of Arts in Religion (MAR)
Education & Academia · Degree Abbreviations
Two-year academic degree at Yale Divinity School and some other seminaries for students studying religion without seeking ordination. Concentrations range from Bible and ethics to religion and the arts.
Example: She chose Yale's MAR to study liturgy before applying to doctoral programs.
Some seminaries also use MAR for one-year comprehensive religion programs. The degree overlaps with the MTS offered at Harvard, Duke and Emory. MAR also abbreviates March, but the degree context is usually obvious.
Related abbreviations
More month abbreviations
- Feb – February
- Jan – January
- Jul – July
- Jun – June
- Nov – November
- Oct – October
- Sep – September
- Sept – September
See all 12 month abbreviations →
More pharmacy abbreviations
- LDD – Limited distribution drug
- LR – Lactated Ringer's solution
- LVP – Large-volume parenteral
- MAC – Maximum allowable cost
- MDI – Metered-dose inhaler
- MDV – Multiple-dose vial
- med rec – Medication reconciliation
- MPJE – Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination
See all 134 pharmacy abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.