50 States and Capitals and Abbreviations Quiz

Pick the two-letter postal abbreviation of each state, named and lit on the map.

50 States and Capitals and Abbreviations Quiz

Name Date

What is the two-letter abbreviation of Florida?

1 of 10

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Write the name of each numbered abbreviation.Answer key

  1. CA
  2. FL
  3. WA
  4. OH
  5. CO
  6. UT
  7. OR
  8. ID
  9. OK
  10. IL
  11. WI
  12. WY
  13. DE
  14. IN
  15. NE
  16. MI
  17. MA
  18. AL
  19. AR
  20. NY
  21. NJ
  22. NM
  23. NH
  24. NC
  25. SC
  26. ND
  27. SD
  28. WV
  29. RI
  30. GA
  31. VA
  32. PA
  33. LA
  34. KY
  35. KS
  36. VT
  37. CT
  38. HI
  39. IA
  40. MD
  41. ME
  42. TX
  43. TN
  44. NV
  45. MT
  46. MN
  47. MS
  48. MO
  49. AK
  50. AZ

Drawn for this site from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023. Licence: public domain.

Each abbreviation is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a abbreviation is answered.

Next step Next: the 50 capitals on the same map

All 50 abbreviations on the diagram

Show the list

First two letters 19

  1. CA California. Capital: Sacramento. First two letters. CO is Colorado, CT is Connecticut.
  2. FL Florida. Capital: Tallahassee. First two letters. The only F state.
  3. WA Washington. Capital: Olympia. First two letters. WI is Wisconsin, WV is West Virginia.
  4. OH Ohio. Capital: Columbus. First two letters. OK is Oklahoma, OR is Oregon.
  5. CO Colorado. Capital: Denver. First two letters. CA is California, CT is Connecticut.
  6. UT Utah. Capital: Salt Lake City. First two letters. The only U state.
  7. OR Oregon. Capital: Salem. First two letters. OH is Ohio, OK is Oklahoma.
  8. ID Idaho. Capital: Boise. First two letters. IA is Iowa, IN is Indiana.
  9. OK Oklahoma. Capital: Oklahoma City. First two letters. OH is Ohio, OR is Oregon.
  10. IL Illinois. Capital: Springfield. First two letters. IN is Indiana, IA is Iowa.
  11. WI Wisconsin. Capital: Madison. First two letters. WA is Washington, WY is Wyoming.
  12. WY Wyoming. Capital: Cheyenne. First two letters. WV is West Virginia, WI is Wisconsin.
  13. DE Delaware. Capital: Dover. First two letters. The only D state.
  14. IN Indiana. Capital: Indianapolis. First two letters. ID is Idaho, IL is Illinois.
  15. NE Nebraska. Capital: Lincoln. First two letters. It was NB until November 1969.
  16. MI Michigan. Capital: Lansing. First two letters. MN is Minnesota, MS is Mississippi.
  17. MA Massachusetts. Capital: Boston. First two letters. ME is Maine, MD is Maryland.
  18. AL Alabama. Capital: Montgomery. First two letters. AK is Alaska, AR is Arkansas.
  19. AR Arkansas. Capital: Little Rock. First two letters. AZ is Arizona, AK is Alaska.

Two words, two initials 10

  1. NY New York. Capital: Albany. One letter from each word. NJ is New Jersey.
  2. NJ New Jersey. Capital: Trenton. One letter from each word. NY is New York.
  3. NM New Mexico. Capital: Santa Fe. One letter from each word. NE is Nebraska.
  4. NH New Hampshire. Capital: Concord. One letter from each word. NV is Nevada.
  5. NC North Carolina. Capital: Raleigh. One letter from each word. ND is North Dakota.
  6. SC South Carolina. Capital: Columbia. One letter from each word. SD is South Dakota.
  7. ND North Dakota. Capital: Bismarck. One letter from each word. NC is North Carolina.
  8. SD South Dakota. Capital: Pierre. One letter from each word. SC is South Carolina.
  9. WV West Virginia. Capital: Charleston. One letter from each word. VA is Virginia.
  10. RI Rhode Island. Capital: Providence. One letter from each word. The only R state.

First and last letter 12

  1. GA Georgia. Capital: Atlanta. First and last letter. The only G state.
  2. VA Virginia. Capital: Richmond. First and last letter. VT is Vermont.
  3. PA Pennsylvania. Capital: Harrisburg. First and last letter. The only P state.
  4. LA Louisiana. Capital: Baton Rouge. First and last letter. The only L state.
  5. KY Kentucky. Capital: Frankfort. First and last letter. KS is Kansas.
  6. KS Kansas. Capital: Topeka. First and last letter. KY is Kentucky.
  7. VT Vermont. Capital: Montpelier. First and last letter. VA is Virginia.
  8. CT Connecticut. Capital: Hartford. First and last letter. CO is Colorado, CA is California.
  9. HI Hawaii. Capital: Honolulu. First and last letter. The only H state.
  10. IA Iowa. Capital: Des Moines. First and last letter. ID is Idaho.
  11. MD Maryland. Capital: Annapolis. First and last letter. ME is Maine, MA is Massachusetts.
  12. ME Maine. Capital: Augusta. First and last letter. MA is Massachusetts, MD is Maryland.

First letter and a later one 9

  1. TX Texas. Capital: Austin. T and the X. TN is Tennessee.
  2. TN Tennessee. Capital: Nashville. T and the first N. TX is Texas.
  3. NV Nevada. Capital: Carson City. N and the V. NE is Nebraska.
  4. MT Montana. Capital: Helena. M and the T. MN is Minnesota, MO is Missouri.
  5. MN Minnesota. Capital: Saint Paul. M and the first N. MI is Michigan.
  6. MS Mississippi. Capital: Jackson. M and the first S. MO is Missouri.
  7. MO Missouri. Capital: Jefferson City. M and the O. MS is Mississippi.
  8. AK Alaska. Capital: Juneau. A and the K. AL is Alabama, AR is Arkansas.
  9. AZ Arizona. Capital: Phoenix. A and the Z. AR is Arkansas, AK is Alaska.

How this list was compiled: Two-letter abbreviations read from USPS Publication 28, Appendix B, Two-Letter State and Possession Abbreviations, https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28apb.htm, checked 2026-09-20. The date the codes began (October 1963) and the change of Nebraska from NB to NE (November 1969) were checked the same day against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_and_territory_abbreviations. The capitals, the map and the point of each state are copied from data/us-states-quiz.json and data/state-capitals-quiz.json on this site, which name their own sources. The four ways a code is built, the hints and the detail lines were worked out and written for this site. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file cb_2023_us_state_20m (scale 1:20,000,000), https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/kml/cb_2023_us_state_20m.zip, downloaded 2026-09-18. Albers equal-area conic projection. Alaska is drawn at 35 percent of the scale of the other states and, like Hawaii, moved into an inset. Small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (work of the United States government, 17 U.S.C. 105): https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/data/tiger/tgrshp2023/TGRSHP2023_TechDoc_Ch1.pdf

How it works

This 50 states and capitals and abbreviations quiz names one state at a time and lights it on the map. Pick its two-letter code from four. Every state, code and capital is listed under the map.

Read the full guide

How a round goes

A state is named and lit: choose its abbreviation from 4. After a miss, one line gives the answer. The round ends with the states you missed. Each capital, and how each code is built, is in the list under the map.

Easy codes first

Rounds follow how a code is made. 19 states use their first two letters, 10 use one letter from each word, 12 use the first and last letter, and 9 pair the first letter with a later one. Under Start from, three mix-up sets drill the eight M states, the eight N states, and AK, AL, AR and AZ.

  • Say the rule before you answer: first two letters, two initials, first and last, or first plus a later letter.
  • Learn the eight M codes as one set: MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT. Only MA and MI are the first two letters.
  • For a class, finish a round, then Print blank gives the map with a line for each state. The other print button is the key.

Questions and answers

What are the two-letter abbreviations for the 50 states?

Each state has one two-letter code set by the U.S. Postal Service, from AL for Alabama to WY for Wyoming. All 50 are listed under the map with their capitals, grouped by how the code is built.

Why are the M and N state abbreviations hard?

Eight states start with M and eight with N, so the second letter does all the work. MI is Michigan, MN Minnesota, MS Mississippi and MO Missouri. NE is Nebraska and NV is Nevada. Each letter has its own mix-up set.

When did states get two-letter abbreviations?

In October 1963, three months after ZIP codes began. The Post Office wanted city, state and ZIP code to fit on a line of 23 characters. One code has changed since: Nebraska went from NB to NE in November 1969.

Does the quiz ask DC or Puerto Rico?

No. The Postal Service list also has DC, codes for territories such as PR and GU, and three military codes. This map shows the 50 states, so those codes are never asked.

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