This article is about the Latin abbreviation. For other uses, see Cf.
"Confer" redirects here. For the software application, see CONFER (software). For academic degree conferral, see Graduation.
Look up confer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latinconfer or conferatur, both meaning 'compare')[1] is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that "cf." be used only to suggest a comparison, and the words "see" or "vide" be used generally to point to a source of information.[2][3] In Italian, the abbreviation "cfr." (confronta, 'confront') is more common than "cf." is.[4]
^"cf". Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus. Cambridge University Press. n.d. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
^"Latin Terms and Abbreviations". The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. n.d. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
^"Chicago Manual of Style 15th Ed. Style Sheet"(PDF). Michigan State University Press. p. 6, citing Chicago Manual of Style section 16.58. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 23, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2016. There is a distinction between see and cf.; use cf. only to mean 'compare' or 'see, by way of comparison'.