SAT
Abbreviation with 4 meanings
| Stands for | Saturday |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 4 |
| Categories | Units & Measurements, Education & Academia, Science & Engineering, Transportation & Travel |
| Also written | Sat |
SAT has four meanings. The most common are Saturday (day of the week) and SAT (originally Scholastic Aptitude Test) (standardized test); it can also stand for Site acceptance test and San Antonio International Airport.
Meanings of SAT at a glance
| # | SAT stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saturday | Units & Measurements › Day of the Week |
| 2 | SAT (originally Scholastic Aptitude Test) | Education & Academia › Standardized Test |
| 3 | Site acceptance test | Science & Engineering › Engineering |
| 4 | San Antonio International Airport | Transportation & Travel › Airport Code |
1. Saturday (Sat)
Units & Measurements · Day of the Week Abbreviations
The only English weekday named after a Roman god: Saturn, from Old English Saeternesdaeg. In Judaism it is the Sabbath, Shabbat, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall.
Example: Open Sat 9 a.m. to noon for walk-in appointments.
Romance languages instead use names derived from Sabbath, such as Spanish sabado and Italian sabato. ISO 8601 numbers Saturday as day 6. In other contexts Sat or SAT means satellite or the SAT college admission test, so capitalization and context matter.
2. SAT (originally Scholastic Aptitude Test)
Education & Academia · Standardized Test Abbreviations
College admission test owned by the College Board and taken by roughly two million US students a year, scored from 400 to 1600 as the sum of a Reading and Writing section and a Math section (200 to 800 each). Since 2024 it has been fully digital and adaptive, taking about two hours and fourteen minutes in the Bluebook app.
Example: She raised her SAT score from 1340 to 1480 by retaking it in the fall of senior year.
First given in 1926, it was renamed the Scholastic Assessment Test in 1990, and since 1997 the letters officially have no expansion. The optional essay and the SAT Subject Tests were discontinued in 2021. Many colleges went test-optional during the pandemic, but several selective schools, including MIT, Dartmouth and Yale, have since reinstated testing requirements. Pronounced as letters, S-A-T.
3. Site acceptance test
Science & Engineering · Engineering Abbreviations
Testing of equipment or systems after installation at the customer's site to confirm they work correctly with the real utilities, process and connected systems. Passing the SAT usually leads to handover and the start of the warranty period.
Example: The SAT revealed a wiring error between the new skid and the plant's control system.
SAT repeats key FAT checks and adds integration tests that could not be done at the factory. In pharmaceutical manufacturing, SATs feed into formal installation and operational qualification (IQ and OQ). In education SAT refers to the US college admissions test.
4. San Antonio International Airport
Transportation & Travel · Airport Code Abbreviations
San Antonio's airport, about 8 miles north of downtown, serving visitors to the Alamo and River Walk and the city's large military community, including Joint Base San Antonio.
Example: Direct flight to SAT on Thursday, then River Walk dinner that night.
ICAO code KSAT. The airport has few long-haul international routes despite the city's size, a frequent local complaint. Its code is unrelated to the SAT college admissions test or to Saturday. A new terminal complex is under development to expand capacity.
Related abbreviations
More day of the week abbreviations
- MWF – Monday, Wednesday, Friday
- R – Thursday (schedule code)
- S – Saturday (schedule code)
- Sa – Saturday
- Su – Sunday
- Sun – Sunday
- T – Tuesday (schedule code)
- Th – Thursday
See all 22 day of the week abbreviations →
More standardized test abbreviations
- PSAT 8/9 – Preliminary SAT for grades 8 and 9
- PSAT/NMSQT – Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test
- PTE – Pearson Test of English
- SAQ – Short-answer question
- SBAC – Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
- SHSAT – Specialized High Schools Admissions Test
- SSAT – Secondary School Admission Test
- SSC – Secondary School Certificate