OSD

Abbreviation with 2 meanings

OSD
Stands forOn-screen display
Meanings2
CategoriesTechnology & Computing, Military

OSD has two meanings. It stands for On-screen display (consumer electronics) or Office of the Secretary of Defense (military unit and organization).

Meanings of OSD at a glance

#OSD stands forContext
1On-screen displayTechnology & Computing › Consumer Electronics
2Office of the Secretary of DefenseMilitary › Military Unit and Organization

1. On-screen display

Technology & Computing · Consumer Electronics Abbreviations

Menu or information overlay that a monitor, TV, projector or camera shows on its screen for settings such as brightness, input selection and color, or for status like volume level.

Example: The monitor's OSD lets you switch the input from HDMI to DisplayPort.

Many monitors navigate the OSD with a small joystick or buttons on the back or underside. If the menu refuses to open, it may be locked; on many models, holding the menu button for about ten seconds unlocks it. In-game and GPU overlays that show frame rate and temperature are also called OSDs.

2. Office of the Secretary of Defense

Military · Military Unit and Organization Abbreviations

Principal staff of the secretary of defense, including the deputy secretary, the under secretaries for policy, acquisition, intelligence and personnel, and various assistant secretaries. OSD sets policy and oversees the military departments and defense agencies.

Example: The memo from OSD directs all services to report readiness data by Friday.

OSD is the civilian side of Pentagon leadership, while the Joint Staff serves the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the military side. The secretary of defense must by law be a civilian who has not served on active duty as a commissioned officer within seven years, a requirement Congress has occasionally waived.

More consumer electronics abbreviations

  • MR – Mixed reality
  • NTSC – National Television System Committee
  • OIS – Optical image stabilization
  • OLED – Organic light-emitting diode
  • OTA – Over-the-air broadcasting
  • PAL – Phase Alternating Line
  • PC – Polycarbonate
  • PCM – Pulse-code modulation

See all 104 consumer electronics abbreviations →

More military unit and organization abbreviations

  • NSW – Naval Special Warfare Command
  • NVA – North Vietnamese Army
  • NWC – National War College
  • ODA – Operational Detachment Alpha
  • PACAF – Pacific Air Forces
  • PACOM – United States Pacific Command
  • PJ – Pararescue jumper
  • PLA – People's Liberation Army

See all 126 military unit and organization abbreviations →

Edited by the AbbreviationList.com team. Spotted an error or a missing meaning? Contact us.