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APA says that "U.S." should be typed out with periods if the abbreviation is being used as an adjective. If you are using this "common" abbreviation, do you need an earlier parenthetical explanation of the abbreviation?

In other words, if the progression of the text is:

"He lives in the United States ... He is a member of the U.S. Navy."

should it be: "He lives in the United States (U.S.) ... He is a member of the U.S. Navy."

?

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You can use abbreviations like U.S., IQ, DNA, cm, laser, etc. that have entries in standard dictionaries without defining them first. Here's a couple of APA blog posts expanding on this:

I suggest erring on the side of caution if you think the abbreviation might be misunderstood though. However, with the case of U.S. that shouldn't be a problem.

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