OCS
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Officer Candidate School |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Military, Medical |
OCS has two meanings. It stands for Officer Candidate School (military term) or Oral corticosteroids (drug class).
Meanings of OCS at a glance
| # | OCS stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Officer Candidate School | Military › Military Term |
| 2 | Oral corticosteroids | Medical › Drug Class |
1. Officer Candidate School
Military · Military Term Abbreviations
Commissioning program for college graduates and enlisted members who want to become officers, run separately by the Army in Georgia, the Navy at Newport, Rhode Island, the Marine Corps at Quantico and the Coast Guard at New London.
Example: After six years as an enlisted mechanic, he went to OCS and commissioned as a second lieutenant.
Course lengths range from about ten to seventeen weeks depending on service. Candidates are addressed as "Candidate." Navy OCS was famously portrayed in the film An Officer and a Gentleman. The Air Force and Space Force equivalent is Officer Training School (OTS).
2. Oral corticosteroids
Medical · Drug Class Abbreviations
Steroid tablets and liquids, such as prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone and dexamethasone, used in short bursts for asthma and COPD attacks and long-term for autoimmune diseases. They are powerful but have many side effects.
Example: Asthma exacerbation: OCS prednisone 40 mg daily x 5 days, no taper.
Even short repeated courses add up: studies link cumulative oral steroid exposure to diabetes, osteoporosis, cataracts and infections, which has led to "steroid stewardship" efforts in asthma care. Courses of a week or two usually need no taper, but long-term use suppresses the adrenal glands and requires gradual withdrawal.
Related abbreviations
More military term abbreviations
- NWU – Navy Working Uniform
- OCIE – Organizational clothing and individual equipment
- OCONUS – Outside the continental United States
- OCP – Operational Camouflage Pattern
- OEF – Operation Enduring Freedom
- OER – Officer Evaluation Report
- OHA – Overseas Housing Allowance
- OIC – Officer in charge
See all 248 military term abbreviations →
More drug class abbreviations
- NRTI – Nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor
- NSAID – Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
- OAC – Oral anticoagulant
- OIT – Oral immunotherapy
- P-CAB – Potassium-competitive acid blocker
- P2Y12i – P2Y12 inhibitor
- PAMORA – Peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist
- PARPi – Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor
See all 113 drug class abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.