calif
n. uncountablen. the standard short way to write the name of the U.S. state California. You usually see this in addresses or news reports.
n. a standard historical abbreviation for the state of California. While still found in older texts and specific journalistic styles, it has largely been superseded by the two-letter postal code CA.
The letter was addressed to a small town in Calif.
Older newspaper style guides often required writers to use Calif. instead of the full state name in datelines.
Legal citations and archival records from the mid-twentieth century frequently employ the Calif. abbreviation to denote jurisdiction before the modern postal system standardized two-letter codes.
Usually written with a period (Calif.) as it is a truncated abbreviation. It is a proper noun and must always be capitalized.