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The name United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland may be shortened to United Kingdom. Note that the article the often precedes United Kingdom but is not capitalized.
Both U.K. and UK are used as abbreviations. Although the traditional practice is to use periods in the abbreviations for geographical names, there is a growing trend to drop the periods in such abbreviations. Thus, the government of the United Kingdom calls itself the UK Government (not U.K.).
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