2e

2e is a shorthand notation used to indicate the second edition of a publication, game, or standard. Its meaning relies on context, and it is not tied to a single universally recognized entity. In practice, 2e appears in discussions about games, books, and technical standards where a revised or successor edition is being referenced.

In tabletop role-playing games, 2e most commonly refers to Second Edition rules. The most famous example is Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition (often called AD&D 2e), released by TSR starting in 1989 and running through the late 1990s, which followed the first edition and preceded the 3rd Edition. Another prominent case is Pathfinder Second Edition, commonly abbreviated Pathfinder 2e, released by Paizo in 2019 as a major revision of the Pathfinder game line. Other game lines also use the 2e designation for their second edition.

In mathematics and computing, "2e" can appear as part of scientific notation, where it represents 2 × 10^n (for example, 2e6 means 2,000,000). When used this way, it is unrelated to editions and is instead a compact numeric representation. The same characters can thus have different meanings in different domains.

Because 2e is context-dependent, readers should infer its exact referent from surrounding information, or consult a disambiguation if multiple 2e usages are possible. The term serves as a convenient shorthand for a revised version, rather than a specific, fixed title.