diff --git a/docs/thesis/header-includes.tex b/docs/thesis/header-includes.tex
index 9ae53c97..d9610cdd 100644
--- a/docs/thesis/header-includes.tex
+++ b/docs/thesis/header-includes.tex
@@ -25,5 +25,3 @@
 \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.3}
 
 % \hypersetup{pdfauthor={lda.chat}, pdftitle={Design and Implementation of lda.chat}}
-\usepackage{newfloat}
-\DeclareFloatingEnvironment{none}
diff --git a/docs/thesis/system-design-implementation.md b/docs/thesis/system-design-implementation.md
index 0e5b947c..68f44b87 100644
--- a/docs/thesis/system-design-implementation.md
+++ b/docs/thesis/system-design-implementation.md
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ diagram:
 
 # List of Abbreviations {.unnumbered}
 
+<!-- The heading identifies this captionless table; it has no table number. -->
 | Abbreviation | Meaning |
 | --- | --- |
 | API | Application Programming Interface |
@@ -61,8 +62,6 @@ diagram:
 | RPC | Remote Procedure Call |
 | USTH | University of Science and Technology of Hanoi |
 
-: Abbreviations used in the thesis. {#tbl:abbreviations .unnumbered}
-
 # Abstract {.unnumbered}
 
 Preparing reports, transforming documents, and collecting workspace information
diff --git a/tests/docs/test_thesis_front_matter.py b/tests/docs/test_thesis_front_matter.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1fed0026
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/docs/test_thesis_front_matter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+"""Exercise the abbreviations table through the actual Pandoc/LaTeX boundary."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
+THESIS = ROOT / "docs/thesis"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    any(shutil.which(tool) is None for tool in ("pandoc", "xelatex", "pdftotext")),
+    reason="Pandoc, XeLaTeX, and pdftotext are needed for the front-matter build",
+)
+def test_abbreviations_compile_without_a_dummy_float(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    """Catch the unnumbered longtable/caption 'none' float failure in isolation."""
+    manuscript = (THESIS / "system-design-implementation.md").read_text(
+        encoding="utf-8"
+    )
+    abbreviations = manuscript.split("# List of Abbreviations", 1)[1]
+    abbreviations = "# List of Abbreviations" + abbreviations.split("# Abstract", 1)[0]
+    output = tmp_path / "abbreviations.pdf"
+    # Use the real preamble: the caption-package interaction is absent from a
+    # plain table-only Pandoc build. XeLaTeX also matches the thesis generator.
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [
+            "pandoc",
+            "--from=markdown",
+            "--standalone",
+            "--pdf-engine=xelatex",
+            "--metadata=documentclass:report",
+            "--include-in-header",
+            str(THESIS / "header-includes.tex"),
+            "--output",
+            str(output),
+        ],
+        input=abbreviations,
+        text=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        capture_output=True,
+        check=False,
+        timeout=90,
+    )
+    assert result.returncode == 0, result.stderr
+    assert output.read_bytes().startswith(b"%PDF-")
+    rendered = subprocess.run(
+        ["pdftotext", "-layout", str(output), "-"],
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        check=True,
+        timeout=15,
+    ).stdout
+    assert "API" in rendered
+    assert "Application Programming Interface" in rendered
+    assert "None 1" not in rendered