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International Organization for Standardization

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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international non-governmental organization, composed of representatives of national standards bodies, that produces world-wide industrial and commercial standards.

See also standardization.

ISO cooperates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which is responsible for standardization of electrical equipment.

It is a common misconception that ISO stands for International Standards Organization, or something similar. ISO is not an acronym; it comes from the Greek word iso, meaning equal. In English its name is International Organization for Standardization, while in French it is called Organisation Internationale de Normalisation; to use an acronym would result in different acronyms in English (IOS) and French (OIN), thus the founders of the organization chose ISO as the universal short form of its name.