Imperial–royal

Thereafter the abbreviation k. k. only applied to institutions of the so-called Cisleithania (i.e. those lands not part of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen/Transleithania: Hungary and Croatia-Slavonia; Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed in 1878 from the Ottoman Empire, was a condominium of Cis- and Transleithania).

Common institutions of both halves of the empire were described from 1867 to 1918 as kaiserlich und königlich/k.

Contrary to the regulations, the Common Army continued to use the abbreviation k. k. to describe itself until 1889.

Today, the abbreviation k. k. is often loosely replaced by k. u. k. ("k and k"), but the two terms are historically and legally distinct.

The prefix k. u. k. (kaiserlich und königlich) only properly referred to the authorities and institutions of both halves of the empire.