ACRONYM

acronym, initialism

(noun) a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word; “‘NATO’ is an initialism for North Atlantic Treaty Organization”; “the word ‘scuba’ is an acronym for s(elf)-c(ontained) u(nderwater) b(reathing) a(pparatus)”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

acronym (plural acronyms)

(linguistics) An abbreviation formed by the initial letters of other words, sometimes exclusively such abbreviations when pronounced as a word (as "laser") rather than as individual letters (initialisms such as "TNT").

(linguistics) An abbreviation formed by the beginning letters or syllables of other words (as "Benelux").

Usage notes

The broader sense of acronym inclusive of initialisms (as "TNT") is sometimes proscribed, but is the term's original and more common meaning. The status of an acronym's pronunciation is not always obvious, as some initialisms have gained interstitial vowels to ease their expression (as /ˈwɪzdəl/ for "WSDL") and others are pronounced alternatively as words or initialisms (as /ˈsiːkwəl/ or /ɛskjuːɛl/ for "SQL").

Acronyms in all senses may variously be written in all capital letters (as "UNESCO" or "WYSIWYG") or in lower case (as "scuba" or "sitcom"), according to the degree to which they have come to be seen as words separate from their derivation. American style guides tend to favor the use of capital spelling for pronounced acronyms of four letters or fewer (as "NATO") whereas British style guides tend to favor standard capitalization of pronounced acronyms as though they were a standard word ("Nato"). Acronyms formed from beginning syllables are sometimes written in camel case (as "EpiPen" or "CHiPs"), although this may be precluded by style guides. Mixed capitalization is also sometimes used when acronyms include words usually left uncapitalized in title case but which have been included for pronunciation or clarity (as "VaR" for "Value at Risk"); in other cases, the standard acronym capitalizes such minor words as well (as "TOEFL" for the "Test of English as a Foreign Language").

Like all abbreviations, acronyms were formerly usually punctuated with full stops or periods to mark the divisions between the original words (as "U.S.A." or "P.R.C.") but this punctuation is increasingly omitted, particularly in the case of acronyms treated as generic words (as "radar" and "sonar") and in acronyms formed from syllables rather than letters. Folk etymologies frequently imagine acronyms for such common words as "fuck", "shit", and "posh" but the earliest English acronym listed by the OED is a form of "abjad" in 1793 and they did not become common until the world wars of the early 20th century.

Synonyms

• (broader sense): initialism

Hyponyms

• (all senses): abbreviation

Verb

acronym (third-person singular simple present acronyms, present participle acronyming, simple past and past participle acronymed)

To form into an acronym.

Anagrams

• romancy

Source: Wiktionary

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