TC
Abbreviation with 6 meanings
| Stands for | Take care |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 6 |
| Categories | Texting & Internet Slang, Medical, Science & Engineering, Business & Finance, Law & Legal, Geography & Places |
| Also written | T.C., Tc |
TC has six meanings. The most common are Take care (texting and chat) and Total cholesterol (laboratory test); it can also stand for Technetium, Total compensation, United States Tax Court and Turks and Caicos Islands.
Meanings of TC at a glance
| # | TC stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Take care | Texting & Internet Slang › Texting and Chat |
| 2 | Total cholesterol | Medical › Laboratory Test |
| 3 | Technetium | Science & Engineering › Chemical Element |
| 4 | Total compensation | Business & Finance › Human Resources |
| 5 | United States Tax Court | Law & Legal › Court |
| 6 | Turks and Caicos Islands | Geography & Places › Country Code |
1. Take care
Texting & Internet Slang · Texting and Chat Abbreviations
Warm farewell at the end of a call, chat or email, wishing the other person well. Often used when someone is ill, traveling or going through a hard time.
Example: Feel better soon and tc, I'll check on you tomorrow.
Friendly and appropriate for most audiences, including casual work messages. In other fields TC means a tropical cyclone, a tech company or total cholesterol, contexts the sentence makes obvious. Often combined, as in "tc, xo."
2. Total cholesterol
Medical · Laboratory Test Abbreviations
Sum of cholesterol carried in all lipoproteins (LDL, HDL and VLDL), reported first on a standard lipid panel. Values below 200 mg/dL are classed as desirable, 200 to 239 mg/dL borderline high and 240 mg/dL or more high under long-standing US guideline categories.
Example: TC 248, HDL 52, LDL 168: ten-year risk calculated before discussing a statin.
Total cholesterol feeds into cardiovascular risk calculators such as the Pooled Cohort Equations and the newer AHA PREVENT equations (2023). Because it combines "good" and "bad" fractions, it is less informative alone than LDL, HDL or non-HDL cholesterol. To convert mg/dL to mmol/L, divide by about 38.7.
3. Technetium (Tc)
Science & Engineering · Chemical Element Abbreviations
The lightest element with no stable isotopes, technetium (atomic number 43) is essentially absent from Earth's crust and is made in reactors. Its metastable isotope technetium-99m, with a six-hour half-life, is the workhorse of nuclear medicine, used in tens of millions of diagnostic scans every year.
Example: The bone scan was performed three hours after injection of Tc-99m medronate.
Emilio Segrè and Carlo Perrier identified it in 1937 in a molybdenum foil bombarded in Ernest Lawrence's cyclotron at Berkeley, making it the first element produced artificially. Its name comes from Greek technetos (artificial). An earlier claimed discovery, "masurium" in 1925, was never confirmed. Some red giant stars show technetium in their spectra, evidence that heavy elements are forged inside stars.
4. Total compensation
Business & Finance · Human Resources Abbreviations
Full annual value of an employee's pay package, usually base salary plus target bonus plus the annualized value of equity grants such as RSUs. The abbreviation is common in technology industry pay discussions.
Example: The offer is $210K base, but TC is closer to $340K with RSUs and bonus.
Sites such as Levels.fyi and the anonymous forum Blind popularized comparing offers by TC. Because equity is valued at grant price, actual TC can rise or fall sharply with the stock.
5. United States Tax Court (T.C.)
Law & Legal · Court Abbreviations
Federal court in Washington, D.C., where taxpayers can dispute an IRS deficiency determination before paying the tax. Its 19 judges travel to cities around the country for trials, and its opinions are cited to the Reports of the United States Tax Court (T.C.) or, for memorandum opinions, as T.C. Memo.
Example: The Commissioner cited a T.C. Memo. holding that the horse-breeding activity was not engaged in for profit.
Established in 1924 as the Board of Tax Appeals, it became an Article I court in 1969. A taxpayer generally must file a petition within 90 days of the notice of deficiency, or 150 days if the notice is addressed outside the United States. Small cases of $50,000 or less per year may use simplified "S case" procedures, which cannot be appealed.
6. Turks and Caicos Islands
Geography & Places · Country Code Abbreviations
British Overseas Territory of about 40 islands and cays southeast of the Bahamas, with Cockburn Town on Grand Turk as its capital and Providenciales as its tourist hub. TCA is the alpha-3 code.
Example: Villa rentals on Providenciales, TC are priced in US dollars.
Locals and the tourism industry usually write TCI. The islands are known for Grace Bay and for salt raking, once their main industry.
Related abbreviations
More texting and chat abbreviations
- SYS – See you soon
- TBF – To be fair
- TBH – To be honest
- TBQH – To be quite honest
- TFTI – Thanks for the invite
- TGIF – Thank God it's Friday
- THX – Thanks
- TMI – Too much information
See all 215 texting and chat abbreviations →
More laboratory test abbreviations
- T&C – Type and crossmatch
- T&S – Type and screen
- TAT – Turnaround time
- TBili – Total bilirubin
- TDM – Therapeutic drug monitoring
- TFT – Thyroid function tests
- TG – Triglycerides
- TIBC – Total iron-binding capacity
See all 135 laboratory test abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical or legal advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.