What does DIM stand for in Visual Basic and BASIC?

Dim originally (in BASIC) stood for Dimension, as it was used to define the dimensions of an array.

(The original implementation of BASIC was Dartmouth BASIC, which descended from FORTRAN, where DIMENSION is spelled out.)

Nowadays, Dim is used to define any variable, not just arrays, so its meaning is not intuitive anymore.

It's short for Dimension, as it was originally used in BASIC to specify the size of arrays.

DIM — (short for dimension) define the size of arrays

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_BASIC

A part of the original BASIC compiler source code, where it would jump when finding a DIM command, in which you can clearly see the original intention for the keyword:

DIM    LDA XR01             BACK OFF OBJECT POINTER
       SUB N3
       STA RX01
       LDA L        2       GET VARIABLE TO BE DIMENSIONED
       STA 3
       LDA S        3
       CAB N36              CHECK FOR $ ARRAY
       BRU *+7              NOT $
       ...

Ref: http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/scans/BASIC/BASIC%20Compiler.pdf

Later on it came to be used to declare all kinds of variables, when the possibility to specify the type for variables was added in more recent implementations.

Dimension a variable, basically you are telling the compiler that you are going to need a variable of this type at some point.

It stands for Dimension, but is generally read as "Create Variable," or "Allocate Space for This."

Variable declaration. Initially, it was short for "dimension", which is not a term that is used in programming (outside of this specific keyword) to any significant degree.

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090310095555AANmiAZ

Short for Dimension. It's a type of variable. You declare (or "tell" Visual Basic) that you are setting up a variable with this word.