An acronym is a

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as in ''

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

'' (short for ''Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg''). They can also be a mixture, as in ''

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

'' (''Radio Detection And Ranging''). Acronyms can be pronounced as words, like ''

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

'' and ''

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

''; as individual letters, like ''FBI'', ''

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

'', and ''ATM''; or as both letters and words, like ''

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...

'' (pronounced ') and ''IUPAC''. Some are not universally pronounced one way or the other and it depends on the speaker's preference or the context in which it is being used, such as '' SQL'' (either "sequel" or "ess-cue-el"). The broader sense of ''acronym''—the meaning of which includes terms pronounced as letters—is sometimes criticized, but it is the term's original meaning and is in common use. Dictionary and style-guide editors are not in universal agreement on the naming for such

abbreviations An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

, and it is a matter of some dispute whether the term ''acronym'' can be legitimately applied to abbreviations which are not pronounced "as words", nor do these language authorities agree on the correct use of

spacing Spacing may refer to: * ''Spacing'' (magazine), a Canadian magazine * Spacing effect in psychology; the opposite of cramming * The usage of spaces in typography ** Letter-spacing, the amount of space between a group of letters ** Line spacing or ...

, casing, and

punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...

. Abbreviations formed from a string of

initial In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...

s and usually pronounced as individual letters are sometimes more specifically called initialisms or alphabetisms; examples are ''FBI'' from ''

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

'', and ''e.g.'' from Latin .

Etymology

The word ''acronym'' is formed from the

Greek root The English language uses many Greek language, Greek and Latin Root (linguistics), roots, Word stem, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages: * List of Greek and Latin roots in English/A–G, Greek and Latin roots ...

s ''acr-'', meaning "height, summit, or tip" and ''-onym'', meaning "name". This

neoclassical compound Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical and ...

appears to have originated in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, with attestations for the German form ' appearing as early as 1921. Citations in English date to a 1940 translation of a novel by the German writer

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. Feuchtwanger's Ju ...

Nomenclature

Whereas an

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

may be any type of shortened form, such as words with the middle omitted (for example, ''Rd'' for ''Road'' or ''Dr'' for ''

Doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

'') or the end truncated (as in ''Prof.'' for ''Professor''), an acronym is—in the broad sense—formed from the first letter or first few letters of each important word in a phrase (such as ''

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

'', from ''acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome'', and ''

scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

'' from ''self-contained underwater breathing apparatus''). However, this is only a loose rule of thumb, as some acronyms are built in part from the first letters of

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...

s (word components; as in the ''i'' and ''d'' in ''immuno-deficiency'') or using a letter from the middle or end of a word, or from only a few key words in a long phrase or name. Less significant words such as ''in'', ''of'', and ''the'' are usually dropped (''NYT'' for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''DMV'' for '' Department of Motor Vehicles''), but not always (''TICA'' for ''

The International Cat Association The International Cat Association (TICA) is considered the world's largest genetic cat registry. Originally a North American organization, it now has a worldwide presence. The organization has a genetic registry for pedigreed and household pet cat ...

'', ''DOJ'' for ''

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

''). Abbreviations formed from a string of initials and usually pronounced as individual letters (as in ''FBI'' from ''

'', and ''e.g.'' from Latin ) are sometimes more specifically called

initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

s or

alphabetism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

s. Occasionally, some letter other than the first is chosen, most often when the pronunciation of the name of the letter coincides with the pronunciation of the beginning of the word (example: ''BX'' from ''

base exchange An exchange is a type of retail store found on United States military installations worldwide. Originally akin to trading posts, they now resemble contemporary department stores or strip malls. Exact terminology varies by armed service; some examp ...

''). Acronyms that are usually pronounced as words, such as ''AIDS'' and ''scuba'', are sometimes called word acronyms, to disambiguate them more clearly from initialisms, especially since some users of the term "initialism" use "acronym" in a narrow sense meaning only the type sounded out as letters. Another sub-type of acronym (or a related form, depending upon one's definitions) is the

syllabic abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

, which is composed specifically of multi-letter

syllabic Syllabic may refer to: *Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words **Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable *Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables *Abugida, writing system ...

(even multi-syllabic) fragments of the abbreviated words; some examples are ''

FOREX The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all as ...

'' from ''foreign exchange'', and ''

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

'' from ''international'' + ''police'', though its full proper name in English is the International Criminal Police Organization. Usually the first syllable (or two) is used from each major component word, but there are exceptions, such as the US Navy term ''DESRON'' or ''DesRon'' from ''destroyer squadron''. There is no special term for abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names with words, or with word-like pronunciations of strings of letters, such as ''

'' () and ''

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

'' (). Similarly, there is no unique name for those that are a mixture of syllabic abbreviations and initialisms; these are usually pronounced as words (e.g., ''

'' from ''radio detection and ranging'', consisting of one syllabic abbreviation and three single letters, and ''

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

'' from ''sound navigation ranging'', consisting of two syllabic abbreviations followed by a single acronymic letter for ''ranging''); these would generally qualify as word acronyms among those who use that term. There is also some disagreement as to what to call an abbreviation that some speakers pronounce as letters but others pronounce as a word. For example, the terms ''

URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...

'' and ''IRA'' (for ''

individual retirement account An individual retirement account (IRA) in the United States is a form of pension provided by many financial institutions that provides tax advantages for retirement savings. It is a trust that holds investment assets purchased with a taxpayer's ear ...

'') can be pronounced as individual letters: and , respectively; or as a single word: and , respectively. The same character string may be pronounced differently when the meaning is different; ''IRA'' is always sounded out as ''I-R-A'' when standing for ''

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

''. The spelled-out form of an acronym, initialism, or syllabic abbreviation (that is, what that abbreviation stands for) is called its ''expansion''.

Lexicography and style guides

It is an unsettled question in English

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

and

style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...

s whether it is legitimate to use the word ''acronym'' to describe forms that use initials but are not pronounced as a word. While there is plenty of evidence that ''acronym'' is used widely in this way, some sources do not acknowledge this usage, reserving the term ''acronym'' only for forms pronounced as a word, and using ''initialism'' or ''abbreviation'' for those that are not. Some sources acknowledge the usage, but vary in whether they criticize or forbid it, allow it without comment, or explicitly advocate for it. Some mainstream English dictionaries from across the English-speaking world affirm a

sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the cen ...

of ''acronym'' which does not require being pronounced as a word. American English dictionaries such as ''

Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American company that publishes reference books and is especially known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States. In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as ...

'', Dictionary.com's ''

Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary'' is a large American dictionary, first published in 1966 as ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: The Unabridged Edition''. Edited by Editor-in-chief Jess Stein, it contained 315, ...

'' and the ''

American Heritage Dictionary American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

'' as well as the British ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'' and the Australian ''

Macquarie Dictionary The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' () is a dictionary of Australian English. It is generally considered by universities and the legal profession to be the authoritative source on Australian English. It also pays considerable attention to New Zealand En ...

'' all include a sense in their entries for ''acronym'' equating it with ''initialism'', although ''The American Heritage Dictionary'' criticizes it with the label "usage problem". However, many English language dictionaries, such as the ''

Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary The ''Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary'' (''CCAD'') from HarperCollins, first published in 1987, is a dictionary that distinguished itself by providing definitions in full sentences, rather than excerpted phrases. Example sentences are given f ...

'', ''

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary The ''Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary'' (abbreviated ''CALD'') was first published in 1995 under the name ''Cambridge International Dictionary of English'', by the Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the ...

'', ''

Macmillan Dictionary ''Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners'', also known as ''MEDAL'', was first published in 2002 by Macmillan Education. ''MEDAL'' is an advanced learner’s dictionary and shares most of the features of this type of dictionary: it pro ...

'', ''

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English The ''Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English'' (''LDOCE''), first published by Longman in 1978, is an advanced learner's dictionary, providing definitions using a restricted vocabulary, helping non-native English speakers understand meani ...

'', ''

New Oxford American Dictionary The ''New Oxford American Dictionary'' (''NOAD'') is a single-volume dictionary of American English compiled by American editors at the Oxford University Press. ''NOAD'' is based upon the ''New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''), published ...

'', ''

Webster's New World Dictionary ''Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language'' is an American dictionary first published in 1951 and since 2022 published by Harper Collins Publishers. Overview The first edition was published by the World Publishing Company of Cl ...

'', and ''

Lexico Lexico was a dictionary website that provided a collection of English and Spanish dictionaries produced by Oxford University Press (OUP), the publishing house of the University of Oxford. While the dictionary content on Lexico came from OUP, th ...

'' from Oxford University Press do not acknowledge such a sense. Most of the dictionary entries and style guide recommendations regarding the term ''acronym'' through the twentieth century did not explicitly acknowledge or support the expansive sense. The

Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'' is a usage dictionary published by Merriam-Webster, Inc., of Springfield, Massachusetts . It is currently available in a reprint edition (1994) or . (The 1989 edition did not include ''Merriam-'' ...

from 1994 is one of the earliest publications to advocate for the expansive sense,Merriam-Webster, Inc. ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', 1994. . pp. 21–22: and all the major dictionary editions that include a sense of ''acronym'' equating it with ''initialism'' were first published in the twenty-first century. The trend among dictionary editors appears to be towards including a sense defining ''acronym'' as ''initialism'': The ''Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary'' added such a sense in its eleventh edition in 2003, and both the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and the ''American Heritage Dictionary'' added such senses in their 2011 editions. The 1989 edition of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' only included the exclusive sense for ''acronym'' and its earliest citation was from 1943. In early December 2010,

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

researcher Stephen Goranson published a citation for ''acronym'' to the

American Dialect Society The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society p ...

e-mail discussion list which refers to ''PGN'' being pronounced "pee-gee-enn,"

antedating Antedating may refer to: * Antedating (lexicography), finding attested use of a word or phrase earlier than the previous earliest known use * Antedated contract, takes effect earlier than its signing date * Antedated cheque, dated earlier than its ...

English language usage of the word to 1940. Linguist

Ben Zimmer Benjamin Zimmer (born 1971) is an American linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is a language columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'' and contributing editor for ''The Atlantic''. He was formerly a language columnist for ''The ...

then mentioned this citation in his December 16, 2010 "

On Language ''On Language'' was a regular column in the weekly ''New York Times Magazine'' on the English language discussing popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics. The inaugural column was published on February 18, 197 ...

" column about acronyms in

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

. By 2011, the publication of the third edition of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' added the expansive sense to its entry for ''acronym'' and included the 1940 citation. As the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' structures the senses in order of chronological development, it now gives the "initialism" sense first. English language usage and style guides which have entries for ''acronym'' generally criticize the usage that refers to forms that are not pronounceable words. ''

Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926), by Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Covering topics such as plurals and literary technique, distinctions among like words ...

'' says that ''acronym'' "denotes abbreviations formed from initial letters of other words and pronounced as a single word, such as ''NATO'' (as distinct from ''B-B-C'')" but adds later "In everyday use, ''acronym'' is often applied to abbreviations that are technically initialisms, since they are pronounced as separate letters." The

Chicago Manual of Style (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

acknowledges the complexity ("Furthermore, an acronym and initialism are occasionally combined (JPEG), and the line between initialism and acronym is not always clear") but still defines the terms as mutually exclusive. Other guides outright deny any legitimacy to the usage: ''

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words ''Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words'' () is a book by Bill Bryson, published under several titles since 1984, that catalogues some of the English language's most commonly misused words and phrases in order to demonstrate preferable usage. ...

'' says "Abbreviations that are not pronounced as words (IBM, ABC, NFL) are not acronyms; they are just abbreviations." ''

Garner's Modern American Usage ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' (''GMEU''), written by Bryan A. Garner and published by Oxford University Press, is a usage dictionary and style guide (or 'prescriptive dictionary') for contemporary Modern English. It was first published in 1 ...

'' says "An acronym is made from the first letters or parts of a compound term. It's read or spoken as a single word, not letter by letter." ''

The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage ''The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The Official Style Guide Used by the Writers and Editors of the World's Most Authoritative Newspaper'' is a style guide first published in 1950 by editors at the newspaper and revised in 1974, 1999, ...

'' says "Unless pronounced as a word, an abbreviation is not an acronym." In contrast, some style guides do support it, whether explicitly or implicitly. The 1994 edition of ''

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'' is a usage dictionary published by Merriam-Webster, Inc., of Springfield, Massachusetts . It is currently available in a reprint edition (1994) or . (The 1989 edition did not include ''Merriam-'' ...

'' defends the usage on the basis of a claim that dictionaries do not make a distinction. The

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

style guide describes CBS and PBS as "acronyms ending in S".

Comparing a few examples of each type

*Pronounced as a word, containing ''only'' initial letters **

: "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" **

Scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

: "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus" **

Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

: "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" **

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on 15 June 1987. ...

: "graphics interchange format" *Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letters **

Amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...

: "alpha-methyl-phenethylamine" **''

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

'': ' (secret state police) **

Radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

: "radio detection and ranging" *Pronounced as a combination of spelling out and a word **

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

: (''cee-dee-'') "compact disc read-only memory" **

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

: (''i-u-'' or ''i-u-pee-a-cee'') "International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry" **

: (''jay-'' or ''jay-pee-e-gee'') "Joint Photographic Experts Group" ** SFMOMA: (''ess-ef-'' or ''ess-ef-em-o-em-a'') "San Francisco Museum of Modern Art" *Pronounced only as a string of letters **

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

: "British Broadcasting Corporation" **

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

: "original equipment manufacturer" **

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

: "United States of America" **

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

: "very high frequency" *Pronounced as a string of letters, but with a shortcut **AAA: ***(''Triple-A'') "

American Automobile Association American Automobile Association (AAA – commonly pronounced as "Triple A") is a federation of motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a privately held not-for-profit national member association and service organization with over 60 m ...

"; "

abdominal aortic aneurysm Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a localized enlargement of the abdominal aorta such that the diameter is greater than 3 cm or more than 50% larger than normal. They usually cause no symptoms, except during rupture. Occasionally, abdominal, ...

"; "

anti-aircraft artillery Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

"; "

Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración Antonio Peña Promotions, S.A. de C.V. d/b/a Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is a Mexican Lucha Libre (professional wrestling) promotion based in Mexico City, Mexico. Commonly referred to as simply AAA (pronounced "triple A"; an abbreviation of its o ...

" ***(''Three-As'') "

Amateur Athletic Association The Amateur Athletic Association of England or AAA (pronounced 'three As') is the oldest national governing body for athletics in the world, having been established on 24 April 1880. Historically it effectively oversaw athletics throughout Britai ...

" **

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

: (''I triple-E'') "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers" **

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

: (''N double-A C P'' or ''N A A C P'') "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" **

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

: (''N C double-A'' or ''N C two-A'' or ''N C A A'') "National Collegiate Athletic Association" *Shortcut incorporated into name ** 3M: (''three M'') originally "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company" **

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...

: (''W-three C'') "World Wide Web Consortium" **

A2DP In order to use Bluetooth, a device must be compatible with the subset of Bluetooth ''profiles'' (often called services or functions) necessary to use the desired services. A Bluetooth profile is a specification regarding an aspect of Bluetooth-b ...

: (''A-two D P'') "Advanced Audio Distribution Profile" **

C4ISTAR Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

: (''C-four Istar'') "Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance" *Mnemonic acronyms, an abbreviation that is used to remember

phrase In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

s or

principle A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a Legal rule, rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, suc ...

s **

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

(Kiss) "Keep it simple, stupid", a design principle preferring simplicity **

SMART Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * ''SMart'', a children's television ser ...

(Smart) "Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-related", A principle of setting of goals and objectives ** FAST (Fast) "Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties, Time", helps detect and enhance responsiveness to the needs of a person having a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

** DRY (Dry) "Don't repeat yourself", A principle of software development aimed at reducing repetition of software patterns *Multi-layered acronyms ** AIM: "AOL Instant Messenger," in which "

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

" originally stood for "America Online" ** AFTA: "ASEAN Free Trade Area," where

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

stands for "Association of Southeast Asian Nations" **

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

: (Dutch football club) "NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie" ("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger of two clubs from Breda: ***NOAD: (' "Never give up, always persevere") ***ADVENDO: (' "Pleasant by entertainment and useful by relaxation") **

GIMP GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized task ...

: "

GNU GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

image manipulation program" *

Recursive acronyms A recursive acronym is an acronym that refers to itself, and appears most frequently in computer programming. The term was first used in print in 1979 in Douglas Hofstadter's book '' Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'', in which Hofs ...

, in which the abbreviation refers to itself **

: "GNU's not Unix!" **

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

: "Wine is not an emulator" (originally, "Windows emulator") **TLA: Three Lettered Acronyms **These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found: ***

HURD GNU Hurd is a collection of microkernel servers written as part of GNU, for the GNU Mach microkernel. It has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation, designed as a replacement for the Unix kernel, and ...

: "HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons," where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth" *Pseudo-acronyms, which consist of a sequence of characters that, when pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer words with less typing This makes them

gramogram A gramogram, grammagram, or letteral word is a letter or group of letters which can be pronounced to form one or more words, as in "CU" for "see you". They are a subset of rebuses, and are commonly used as abbreviations. They are sometimes used as ...

s. ** CQ: ''cee-cue'' for "seek you", a code used by radio operators **

IOU An IOU (Abbreviation, abbreviated from the phrase "I owe you") is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. An IOU differs from a promissory note in that an IOU is not a negotiable instrument and does not specify repayment terms such as th ...

: ''i-o-u'' for "I owe you" ** K9: ''kay-nine'' for "canine," used to designate police units utilizing dogs *Abbreviations whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included anyway ** ATM machine: "automated teller machine" (machine) **

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

virus: "human immunodeficiency virus" (virus) **

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...

display: "liquid-crystal display" (display) **

PIN A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch de ...

number: "personal identification number" (number) *Pronounced as a word, containing letters as a word in itself **

PAYGO PAYGO (Pay As You GO) is the practice in the United States of financing expenditures with funds that are currently available rather than borrowed. Budgeting The PAYGO compels new spending or tax changes not to add to the federal debt. Not to be co ...

: "pay-as-you-go"

Historical and current use

Acronymy, like

retronym A retronym is a newer name for an existing thing that helps differentiate the original form/version from a more recent one. It is thus a word or phrase created to avoid confusion between older and newer types, whereas previously (before there were ...

y, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no

naming Naming is assigning a name to something. Naming may refer to: * Naming (parliamentary procedure), a procedure in certain parliamentary bodies * Naming ceremony, an event at which an infant is named * Product naming, the discipline of deciding wha ...

, conscious attention, or systematic analysis until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became much more common in the 20th century than it had formerly been. Ancient examples of acronymy (before the term "acronym" was invented) include the following: * Acronyms were used in Rome before the Christian era. For example, the official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was abbreviated as ''

SPQR SPQR, an abbreviation for (; en, "The Roman Senate and People"; or more freely "The Senate and People of Rome"), is an emblematic abbreviated phrase referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic. It appears on Roman currency, at ...

'' ('). Inscriptions dating from antiquity, both on stone and on coins, use many abbreviations and acronyms to save space and work. For example, Roman first names, of which there was only a small set, were almost always abbreviated. Common terms were abbreviated too, such as writing just "F" for ', meaning "son", a very common part of memorial inscriptions mentioning people. Grammatical markers were abbreviated or left out entirely if they could be inferred from the rest of the text. * So-called ' (sacred names) were used in many Greek biblical manuscripts. The common words "God" (), "Jesus" (), "Christ" (), and some others, would be abbreviated by their first and last letters, marked with an overline. This was just one of many kinds of conventional scribal abbreviation, used to reduce the time-consuming workload of the scribe and save on valuable writing materials. The same convention is still commonly used in the inscriptions on religious

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

s and the stamps used to mark the eucharistic bread in

Eastern Churches Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

. * The early Christians in Rome, most of whom were Greek rather than Latin speakers, used the image of a fish as a symbol for

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in part because of an acronym (or

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

): "fish" in Greek is ' (), which was construed to stand for (': "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior"). This interpretation dates from the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is preserved in the

catacombs Catacombs are man-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etymology and history The first place to be referred ...

of Rome. Another ancient acronym for Jesus is the inscription ''

INRI In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the King of the Jews, both at the beginning of his life and at the end. In the Koine Greek of the New Testament, e.g., in John 19:3, this is written as '' Basileus ton Ioudaion'' (). Both uses of t ...

'' over the crucifix, for the Latin ' ("Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews"). * The Hebrew language has a centuries-long history of acronyms pronounced as words. The Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") is known as "

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

" (five books of Moses), "

Nevi'im Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (wri ...

" (prophets), and "

K'tuvim The Ketuvim (; hbo, , Modern: ''Kəṯūvīm'', Tiberian: ''Kăṯūḇīm'' "writings") is the third and final section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), after Torah (instruction) and Nevi'im (prophets). In English translations of the Hebrew Bi ...

" (writings). Many rabbinical figures from the Middle Ages onward are referred to in rabbinical literature by their pronounced acronyms, such as

Rambam Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah s ...

and

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...

from the initial letters of their full Hebrew names: "Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon" and "Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki". During the mid- to late 19th century, acronyms became a trend among American and European businessmen: abbreviating

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

names, such as on the sides of

railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

s (e.g., "Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad" → "RF&P"); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on

ticker tape Ticker tape was the earliest electrical dedicated financial communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use from around 1870 through 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through a machine called ...

and newspaper stock listings (e.g. American Telephone and Telegraph Company → AT&T). Some well-known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include "

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco's ...

" ("National Biscuit Company"),B. Davenport ''American Notes and Queries'' (February 1943) vol 2 page 167 "Your correspondent who asks about words made up of the initial letters or syllables of other words may be interested in knowing that I have seen such words called by the name ''acronym'', which is useful and clear to anyone who knows a little Greek." "

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

" (from "S.O.", from "

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

"), and "

Sunoco Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, ...

" ("Sun Oil Company"). Another field for the adoption of acronyms was modern warfare, with its many highly technical terms. While there is no recorded use of military acronyms dating from the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

(acronyms such as " ANV" for "Army of Northern Virginia" postdate the war itself), they became somewhat common in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

they were widespread even in the slang of soldiers, who referred to themselves as

G.I. G.I. are initials used to describe the soldiers of the United States Army and airmen of the United States Air Force and general items of their equipment. The term G.I. has been used as an initialism of "Government Issue", "General Issue", or " ...

s. The widespread, frequent use of acronyms across the whole range of linguistic registers is relatively new in most languages, becoming increasingly evident since the mid-20th century. As literacy spread and technology produced a constant stream of new and complex terms, abbreviations became increasingly convenient. The ''

'' (''OED'') records the first printed use of the word ''initialism'' as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into general use until 1965, well after ''acronym'' had become common. In English, acronyms may be a 20th-century phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in ''Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends'' claims that "forming words from acronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century phenomenon. There is only one known pre-twentieth-century nglishword with an acronymic origin and it was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is ''colinderies'' or ''colinda'', an acronym for the

Colonial and Indian Exposition The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was held in South Kensington in London with the objective to (in the words of the then Prince of Wales) "stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of her Majes ...

held in London in that year." However, although acronymic words seem not to have been before the 20th century (as Wilton points out), the is treated as effortlessly understood (and evidently not novel) in an

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

story of the 1830s, "

How to Write a Blackwood Article "A Predicament" is a humorous short story by Edgar Allan Poe, usually combined with its companion piece "How to Write a Blackwood Article". It was originally titled "The Scythe of Time". The paired stories parody the Gothic sensation tale, popula ...

", which includes the contrived acronym "P.R.E.T.T.Y.B.L.U.E.B.A.T.C.H."

Early examples in English

The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

s has been pan-European and predates modern English. Some examples of acronyms in this class are: *'' A.M.'' (from Latin ', "before noon") and '' P.M.'' (from Latin ', "after noon") *''A.D.'' (from Latin ', "in the year of our Lord"), whose complement in English, ''B.C.'' /nowiki>

/nowiki>Before_Christ">Before_Christ.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Before_Christ">/nowiki>Before_Christ/nowiki>,_is_English-sourced The_earliest_example_of_a_word_derived_from_an_acronym_listed_by_the_''Oxford_English_Dictionary.html" "title="Before_Christ.html" ;"title="Before_Christ.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Before Christ">/nowiki>Before Christ">Before_Christ.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Before Christ">/nowiki>Before Christ/nowiki>, is English-sourced The earliest example of a word derived from an acronym listed by the ''Oxford English Dictionary">OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'' is "abjud" (now "abjad"), formed from the original first four letters of the Arabic alphabet in the late 18th century. Some acrostics predate this, however, such as the English Restoration, Restoration witticism arranging the names of some members of Charles II's Committee for Foreign Affairs to produce the "CABAL" ministry. '' O.K.'', a term of disputed origin, dates back at least to the early 19th century and is now used around the world.

Current use

Acronyms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or frequently referenced terms. The

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and government agencies frequently employ acronyms; some well-known examples from the United States are among the " alphabet agencies" (jokingly referred to as "

alphabet soup Alphabet soup may refer to: *A common dish made from alphabet pasta *Alphabet soup (linguistics), a metaphor for an abundance of abbreviations or acronyms * Alphabet Soup (ultimate frisbee), a mixed European ultimate frisbee team *Alphabet Soup (ho ...

") created under the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

(himself known as "FDR"). Business and industry also coin acronyms prolificly. The rapid advance of science and technology also drives the usage, as new inventions and concepts with multiword names create a demand for shorter, more pronounceable names. One representative example, from the U.S. Navy, is "COMCRUDESPAC", which stands for "commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific"; it is also seen as "ComCruDesPac". Inventors are encouraged to anticipate the formation of acronyms by making new terms "YABA-compatible" ("yet another bloody acronym"), meaning the term's acronym can be pronounced and is not an offensive word: "When choosing a new name, be sure it is 'YABA-compatible'." Acronym use has been further popularized by text messaging on mobile phones with

short message service Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

(SMS), and

instant messenger Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

(IM). To fit messages into the 160-character SMS limit, and to save time, acronyms such as "GF" ("girlfriend"), "LOL" ("laughing out loud"), and "DL" ("download" or "down low") have become popular. Some

prescriptivist Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...

s disdain texting acronyms and abbreviations as decreasing clarity, or as failure to use "pure" or "proper" English. Others point out that languages have always continually changed, and argue that acronyms should be embraced as inevitable, or as innovation that adapts the language to changing circumstances. In this view, the modern practice is just the "proper" English of the current generation of speakers, much like the earlier abbreviation of corporation names on ticker tape or newspapers. Exact pronunciation of "word acronyms" (those pronounced as words rather than sounded out as individual letters) often vary by speaker population. These may be regional, occupational, or generational differences, or simply personal preference. For instance, there have been decades of online debate about how to pronounce

( or ) and

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

(, , or ). Similarly, some letter-by-letter initialisms may become word acronyms over time, especially in combining forms: ''IP'' for ''

Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. IP h ...

'' is generally said as two letters, but ''

IPsec In computing, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a secure network protocol suite that authenticates and encrypts packets of data to provide secure encrypted communication between two computers over an Internet Protocol network. It is used in ...

'' for ''Internet Protocol Security'' is usually pronounced as or , along with variant capitalization like "IPSEC" and "Ipsec". Pronunciation may even vary within a single speaker's vocabulary, depending on narrow contexts. As an example, the database programming language SQL is usually said as three letters, but in reference to Microsoft's implementation is traditionally pronounced like the word ''

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

''.

Expansion at first use

In writing for a broad audience, the words of an acronym are typically written out in full at its first occurrence within a given text. EAFU (Expansion At First Use) benefits readers unfamiliar with the acronym. Another text aid is an abbreviation key which lists and expands all acronyms used, a reference for readers who skipped past the first use. (This is especially important for paper media, where no search utility is available to find the first use.) It also gives students a convenient review list to memorize the important acronyms introduced in a textbook chapter. Expansion at first use and abbreviation keys originated in the print era, but they are equally useful for

electronic text e-text (from "''electronic text''"; sometimes written as etext) is a general term for any document that is read in digital form, and especially a document that is mainly text. For example, a computer-based book of art with minimal text, or a set ...

Jargon

While acronyms provide convenience and succinctness for specialists, they often degenerate into confusing

jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular Context (language use), communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The conte ...

. This may be intentional, to exclude readers without domain-specific knowledge. New acronyms may also confuse when they coincide with an already existing acronym having a different meaning. Medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of acronyms, including efforts by the American Academy of Dermatology.

As mnemonics

Acronyms are often taught as

mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...

devices: for example the colors of the rainbow are

ROY G. BIV ROYGBIV is an acronym for the sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. There are several mnemonics that can be used for remembering this color sequence, such as the ...

(red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). They are also used as mental checklists: in aviation

GUMPS GUMPS is an acronym widely used by retractable gear aircraft pilots as a mental checklist to ensure nothing critical has been forgotten before landing. Its popularity is widespread, appearing in flight student curricula, FAA publications and avi ...

stands for gas-undercarriage-mixture-propeller-seatbelts. Other mnemonic acronyms include

CAN SLIM CAN SLIM refers to the acronym developed by the American stock research and education company ''Investor's Business Daily'' (''IBD''). ''IBD'' claims CANSLIM represents the seven characteristics that top-performing stocks often share before making t ...

in finance, PAVPANIC in English grammar, and

PEMDAS In mathematics and computer programming, the order of operations (or operator precedence) is a collection of rules that reflect conventions about which procedures to perform first in order to evaluate a given mathematical expression. For examp ...

in mathematics.

Acronyms as legendary etymology

It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...

, called a

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

, and are examples of language-related

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

s. For example, " cop" is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol", and "

posh Posh is an informal adjective for "upper class". It may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Posh'' (album), a 1980 album by Patrice Rushen *"Posh!", a 1968 song from the musical ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' * ''Posh'' (2006 TV series), a 2006 Philipp ...

" from "

port outward, starboard home A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

".; published in the US as With some of these specious expansions, the "belief" that the etymology is acronymic has clearly been

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...

among many citers, as with "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden" for "

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

", although many other (more credulous) people have uncritically taken it for fact.

Taboo word Word taboo, also called taboo language, language taboo or linguistic taboo is a kind of taboo that involves restricting the use of words or other parts of language due to social constraints. This may be due to a taboo on specific parts of the langu ...

s in particular commonly have such false etymologies: "

shit ''Shit'' is a word considered to be vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. ''Shite'' is a common variant in British an ...

" from "ship/store high in transit" or "special high-intensity training" and "

fuck ''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to aro ...

" from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent/command of the king".

Orthographic styling

Punctuation

Showing the ellipsis of letters

In English, abbreviations have traditionally been written with a full stop/period/point in place of the deleted part to show the

ellipsis The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term origin ...

of letters – although the colon and

apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

have also had this role – and with a space after full stops (e.g. "A. D."). In the case of most acronyms, each letter is an abbreviation of a separate word and, in theory, should get its own termination mark. Such punctuation is diminishing with the belief that the presence of all-capital letters is sufficient to indicate that the word is an abbreviation.

=Ellipsis-is-understood style

= Some influential

s, such as that of the

, no longer require punctuation to show

; some even proscribe it.

Larry Trask Robert Lawrence Trask (10 November 1944 – 27 March 2004) was an American–British professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex, and an authority on the Basque language and the field of historical linguistics. Biography Born in Ole ...

, American author of ''The

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

Guide to Punctuation'', states categorically that, in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

, "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete."

=Pronunciation-dependent style and periods

= Nevertheless, some influential

s, many of them

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, still require periods in certain instances. For example, ''

'' recommends following each segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in "

K.G.B. The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

", but not when pronounced as a word, as in "

". The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the punctuation scheme.

=Other conventions

= When a multiple-letter abbreviation is formed from a single word, periods are in general not used, although they may be common in informal usage. "TV", for example, may stand for a ''single'' word ("television" or "transvestite", for instance), and is in general spelled without punctuation (except in the plural). Although "PS" stands for the single word "

postscript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...

" (or the Latin ''postscriptum''), it is often spelled with periods ("P.S."). The

slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

('/', or ''solidus'') is sometimes used to separate the letters in an acronym, as in "N/A" ("not applicable, not available") and "c/o" ("care of"). Inconveniently long words used frequently in related contexts can be represented according to their letter count as a

numeronym A numeronym is a number-based word. Most commonly, a numeronym is a word where a number is used to form an abbreviation (albeit not an acronym or an initialism). Pronouncing the letters and numbers may sound similar to the full word, as in " K9" ( ...

. For example, "i18n" abbreviates "

internationalization In economics, internationalization or internationalisation is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization. Internationalization is a crucial strateg ...

", a computer-science term for adapting software for worldwide use. The "18" represents the 18 letters that come between the first and the last in "internationalization". "Localization" can be abbreviated "l10n", " multilingualization" "m17n", and "

accessibility Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...

" "a11y". In addition to the use of a specific number replacing that many letters, the more general "x" can be used to replace an unspecified number of letters. Examples include "Crxn" for "crystallization" and the series familiar to physicians for

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

, and treatment ("hx", "dx", "tx").

Representing plurals and possessives

There is a question about how to pluralize acronyms. Often a writer will add an 's' following an apostrophe, as in "PC's". However,

Kate Turabian Kate Larimore Turabian (born Laura Kate Larimore, February 26, 1893 – October 25, 1987) was an American educator who is best known for her book ''A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations''. In 2018 the Universit ...

, writing about style in academic writings,Turabian, K., ''A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations'', 7th Edition, subsection 20.1.2 allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". Turabian would therefore prefer "DVDs" and "URLs" and "Ph.D.'s". The

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

Modern Language Association (MLA) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition 2009, subsection 3.2.7.g and

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 5th Edition 2001, subsection 3.28Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 6th Edition 2010, subsection 4.29 prohibit apostrophes from being used to pluralize acronyms regardless of periods (so "compact discs" would be "CDs" or "C.D.s"), whereas ''

'' requires an apostrophe when pluralizing all abbreviations regardless of periods (preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's"). Possessive plurals that also include apostrophes for mere pluralization and periods appear especially complex: for example, "the C.D.'s' labels" (the labels of the compact discs). In some instances, however, an apostrophe may increase clarity: for example, if the final letter of an abbreviation is "S", as in "SOS's" (although abbreviations ending with S can also take "-es", e.g. "SOSes"), or when pluralizing an abbreviation that has periods. A particularly rich source of options arises when the plural of an acronym would normally be indicated in a word other than the final word if spelled out in full. A classic example is "Member of Parliament", which in plural is "Members of Parliament". It is possible then to abbreviate this as "M's P". (or similar), as used by former Australian Prime Minister

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follow ...

. This usage is less common than forms with "s" at the end, such as "MPs", and may appear dated or pedantic. In common usage, therefore, "weapons of mass destruction" becomes "WMDs", "prisoners of war" becomes "POWs", and "runs batted in" becomes "RBIs". The argument that acronyms should have no different plural form (for example, "If ''D'' can stand for ''disc'', it can also stand for ''discs''") is in general disregarded because of the practicality in distinguishing singulars and plurals. This is not the case, however, when the abbreviation is understood to describe a plural noun already: For example, "U.S." is short for "United States", but not "United State". In this case, the options for making a possessive form of an abbreviation that is already in its plural form without a final "s" may seem awkward: for example, "U.S.", "U.S.'s", etc. In such instances, possessive abbreviations are often forgone in favor of simple

attributive In grammar, an attributive expression is a word or phrase within a noun phrase that modifies the head noun. It may be an: * attributive adjective * attributive noun * attributive verb or other part of speech, such as an attributive numeral. ...

usage (for example, "the U.S. economy") or expanding the abbreviation to its full form and ''then'' making the possessive (for example, "the United States' economy"). On the other hand, in speech, the pronunciation "United States's" is sometimes used. Abbreviations that come from single, rather than multiple, words – such as "TV" ("television") – are usually pluralized without apostrophes ("two TVs"); most writers feel that the apostrophe should be reserved for the possessive ("the TV's antenna"). In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the acronym is used to indicate plural words: for example, the Spanish ', for ' ('United States'). This old convention is still followed for a limited number of English abbreviations, such as ''SS.'' for "Saints", ''pp.'' for the Latin plural of "pages", ', or ''MSS'' for "manuscripts". In the case of ''pp.'' it derives from the original Latin phrase "

per procurationem Procuration () is the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, agency. The word is applied to the authority or power delegated to a procurator, or agent, as well as to the exercise of such authority expressed frequently by procurati ...

" meaning 'through the agency of'; an English translation alternative is ''particular pages'' in a book or document: see pp. 8–88.

Case

All-caps style

The most common

capitalization Capitalization (American English) or capitalisation (British English) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in lower case, in writing systems with a case distinction. The term a ...

scheme seen with acronyms is all-uppercase (

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

), except for those few that have linguistically taken on an identity as regular words, with the acronymous etymology of the words fading into the background of common knowledge, such as has occurred with the words "

", "

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

", and "

": these are known as ''anacronyms''. Anacronyms (note well ''-acro-'') should not be homophonously confused with anachronyms (note well ''-chron-''), which are a type of misnomer.

Small-caps variant

Small caps In typography, small caps (short for "small capitals") are characters typeset with glyphs that resemble uppercase letters (capitals) but reduced in height and weight close to the surrounding lowercase letters or text figures. This is technicall ...

are sometimes used to make the run of capital letters seem less jarring to the reader. For example, the style of some American publications, including the ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', is to use small caps for acronyms longer than three letters; thus "U.S." and "

FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

" in normal caps, but "" in small caps. The acronyms " AD" and " BC" are often smallcapped as well, as in: "From ".

Mixed-case variant

Words derived from an acronym by affixing are typically expressed in mixed case, so the root acronym is clear. For example, "pre-WWII politics", "post-NATO world", "

DNase Deoxyribonuclease (DNase, for short) refers to a group of glycoprotein endonucleases which are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of phosphodiester linkages in the DNA backbone, thus degrading DNA. The role of the DNase enzyme in cells ...

". In some cases a derived acronym may also be expressed in mixed case. For example, "

messenger RNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. mRNA is created during the p ...

" and "

transfer RNA Transfer RNA (abbreviated tRNA and formerly referred to as sRNA, for soluble RNA) is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes), that serves as the physical link between the mRNA and the amino ac ...

" become "mRNA" and "tRNA".

Pronunciation-dependent style and case

Some publications choose to capitalize only the first letter of acronyms, reserving all-caps styling for initialisms, writing the pronounced acronyms "Nato" and "Aids" in mixed case, but the initialisms "USA" and "FBI" in all caps. For example, this is the style used in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

typically edits to this style (though its official style guide, dating from 2003, still recommends all-caps). The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the capitalization scheme. However, it conflicts with conventional English usage of first-letter upper-casing as a marker of proper names in many cases; e.g. ''AIDS'' stands for ''acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome'' which is not a proper name, while ''Aids'' is in the style of one. Some style manuals also base the letters'

case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...

on their number. ''The New York Times'', for example, keeps "NATO" in all capitals (while several guides in the British press may render it "Nato"), but uses lower case in "

Unicef UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

" (from "United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund") because it is more than four letters, and to style it in caps might look ungainly (flirting with the appearance of "shouting capitals").

Numerals and constituent words

While abbreviations typically exclude the initials of short

function word In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...

s (such as "and", "or", "of", or "to"), this is not always the case. Sometimes function words are included to make a pronounceable acronym, such as CORE (

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...

). Sometimes the letters representing these words are written in lower case, such as in the cases of "TfL" (" Transport for London") and ''LotR'' (''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

''); this usually occurs when the acronym represents a multi-word proper noun. Numbers (both

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

and ordinal) in names are often represented by digits rather than initial letters, as in "4GL" ("

fourth generation language A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations ai ...

") or "G77" ("

Group of 77 The Group of 77 (G77) at the United Nations (UN) is a coalition of 134 developing countries, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations. There were 77 fou ...

"). Large numbers may use

metric prefixes A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or submultiple of the unit. All metric prefixes used today are decadic. Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepended to any unit symbol. The pre ...

, as with "

Y2K The year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem, Y2K scare, millennium bug, Y2K bug, Y2K glitch, Y2K error, or simply Y2K refers to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after ...

" for "Year 2000" (sometimes written "Y2k", because the SI symbol for 1000 is "k", not "K", which stands for "

kelvin The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and phys ...

", the SI unit for

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

). Exceptions using initials for numbers include "

TLA TLA may refer to: Organisations * Tennessee Library Association, a professional organization for librarians in Tennessee * Texas Library Association, a professional organization for librarians in Texas * Tour de las Américas, a professional gol ...

" ("three-letter acronym/abbreviation") and "GoF" ("

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...

"). Abbreviations using numbers for other purposes include repetitions, such as "

" ("Advanced Audio Distribution Profile"), "

" ("World Wide Web Consortium"), and '' T3'' (''Trends, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living''); pronunciation, such as " B2B" ("business to business"); and

s, such as "i18n" ("internationalization"; "18" represents the 18 letters between the initial "i" and the final "n").

Casing of expansions

Authors of

expository writing The rhetorical modes (also known as modes of discourse) are a long-standing attempt to broadly classify the major kinds of language-based communication, particularly writing and speaking, into narration, description, exposition, and argumentation ...

will sometimes capitalize or otherwise distinctively format the initials of the expansion for

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and Developmental psychology, psychological development of le ...

emphasis (for example, writing: "the onset of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)" or "the onset of congestive heart failure (CHF)"), but this conflicts with the convention of English orthography, which reserves capitals in the middle of sentences for proper nouns; and would be rendered as "the onset of congestive heart failure (CHF)" when following the

AMA Manual of Style ''AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors'' is the style guide of the American Medical Association. It is written by the editors of ''JAMA (journal), JAMA'' (''Journal of the American Medical Association'') and the JAMA Network jour ...

Changes to (or wordplay on) the expanded meaning

Pseudo-acronyms

Some apparent acronyms or other abbreviations do not stand for anything and cannot be expanded to some meaning. Such pseudo-acronyms may be pronunciation-based, such as "BBQ" (''bee-bee-cue''), for "barbecue", or " K9" (''kay-nine'') for "canine". Pseudo-acronyms also frequently develop as "orphan initialisms"; an existing acronym is redefined as a non-acronymous name, severing its link to its previous meaning.What Does "BP" Stand For?
For example, the letters of the "

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

", a US college entrance test originally dubbed "Scholastic Aptitude Test", no longer officially stand for anything. The US-based abortion-rights organization "

NARAL NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to ...

" is another example of this; in that case, the organization changed their name three times, with the long-form of the name always corresponding to the letters "NARAL", before eventually opting to simply be known by the short-form, without being connected to a long-form. This is common with companies that want to retain

brand recognition Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions. Brand awareness is one of two dimensions from brand knowledge, an associative network memory model. Brand awareness is a key consi ...

while moving away from an outdated image: American Telephone and Telegraph became

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

, "

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

" became "KFC" to de-emphasize the role of frying in the preparation of its signature dishes, and British Petroleum became BP. ''

Russia Today RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels ...

'' has rebranded itself as ''RT''.

American Movie Classics AMC is an American multinational basic cable television channel that is the flagship property of AMC Networks. The channel's programming primarily consists of theatrically released films, along with a limited amount of original programming. ...

has simply rebranded itself as AMC. Genzyme Transgenics Corporation became GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc.;

The Learning Channel TLC is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learning Channel, it initially focused on educational and instructional programming. By the late 1990s, after an acquisition by the own ...

became TLC; and

American District Telegraph ADT Inc., formerly The ADT Corporation, is an American company that provides residential, small and large business electronic security, fire protection, and other related alarm monitoring services throughout the United States. The corporate hea ...

became simply known as ADT. Pseudo-acronyms may have advantages in international markets: for example, some national

affiliates In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or al ...

of International Business Machines are legally incorporated with "IBM" in their names (for example, IBM Canada) to avoid translating the full name into local languages. Likewise,

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

is the name of the merged

Union Bank of Switzerland Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) was a Swiss Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in ...

and

Swiss Bank Corporation Swiss Bank Corporation was a Swiss investment bank and financial services company located in Switzerland. Prior to its merger, the bank was the third largest in Switzerland with over CHF300 billion of assets and CHF11.7 billion of equ ...

, and

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

has replaced the long name Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Some companies which have a name giving a clear indication of their place of origin will choose to use acronyms when expanding to foreign markets: for example,

Toronto-Dominion Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquarte ...

continues to operate under the full name in Canada, but its U.S. subsidiary is known as

TD Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. ...

, just as

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

used its full name in Canada (a

constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

), but its now-defunct U.S. subsidiary was called

RBC Bank RBC Bank is the trading name of RBC Bank (Georgia), N.A., the United States-based retail banking division of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) which is targeted toward Canadian snowbirds, expatriates, and frequent tourists. Despite its limited reac ...

. The India-based

JSW Group JSW Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, based in Mumbai. It is led by Sajjan Jindal and part of the O.P. Jindal Group. The Group's diverse businesses include steel, energy, infrastructure, cement and paints, across India, the Unite ...

of companies is another example of the original name (Jindal South West Group) being re-branded into a pseudo-acronym while expanding into other geographical areas in and outside of India.

Redundant acronyms and RAS syndrome

Rebranding can lead to redundant acronym syndrome, as when

Trustee Savings Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

became TSB Bank, or when

Railway Express Agency Railway Express Agency (REA), founded as the American Railway Express Agency and later renamed the American Railway Express Inc., was a national package delivery service that operated in the United States from 1918 to 1975. REA arranged transp ...

became REA Express. A few

high-tech High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...

companies have taken the redundant acronym to the extreme: for example, ISM Information Systems Management Corp. and SHL Systemhouse Ltd. Examples in entertainment include the television shows ''

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...

'' and '' Navy: NCIS'' ("Navy" was dropped in the second season), where the redundancy was likely designed to educate new viewers as to what the initials stood for. The same reasoning was in evidence when the

's Canadian operations rebranded to RBC Royal Bank, or when

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (BMO; french: Banque de Montréal, link=no) is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank; while its head office remains in ...

rebranded their retail banking subsidiary BMO Bank of Montreal. Another common example is "

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

memory", which is redundant because "RAM" ("random-access memory") includes the initial of the word "memory". "PIN" stands for "personal identification number", obviating the second word in "

number"; in this case its retention may be motivated to avoid ambiguity with the homophonous word "pin". Other examples include " ATM machine", " EAB bank", "

virus", Microsoft's NT Technology, and the formerly redundant "

test", now simply "SAT Reasoning Test"). TNN (The Nashville/National Network) also renamed itself "The New TNN" for a brief interlude.

Redefined acronyms

In some cases, while the initials in an acronym may stay the same, for what those letters stand may change. Examples include the following: *

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

was originally an acronym for the unofficial term "digital video disc", but is now stated by the

DVD Forum The DVD Forum is an international organization composed of hardware, software, media and production companies that use and develop the DVD and formerly HD DVD formats. It was initially known as the DVD Consortium when it was founded in 1995. H ...

as standing for "Digital Versatile Disc" *

GAO Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

changed the full form of its name from "General Accounting Office" to "Government Accountability Office" *

GPO GPO may refer to: Government and politics * General Post Office, Dublin * General Post Office, in Britain * Social Security Government Pension Offset, a provision reducing benefits * Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a Thai state enterpris ...

changed the full form of its name from "Government Printing Office" to "Government Publishing Office" *

RAID Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

was originally an acronym for "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks" but has since been redefined as "Redundant Array of Independent Disks" *The UICC was founded as the "International Union Against Cancer", and its initials originally came from the Romance-language versions of that name (such as French '). The English expansion of its name has since been changed to "Union for International Cancer Control" so that it would also correspond to the UICC acronym. * WWF was originally an acronym for "World Wildlife Fund", but now stands for "World Wide Fund for Nature" (although the organization's branches in the U.S. and Canada still use the original name)

Backronyms

A ''backronym'' (or ''bacronym'') is a

that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word. For example, the novelist and critic

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, d ...

once proposed that the word "book" ought to stand for "box of organized knowledge". A classic real-world example of this is the name of the predecessor to the Apple Macintosh, the

Apple Lisa Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, released on January 19, 1983. It is one of the first personal computers to present a graphical user interface (GUI) in a machine aimed at individual business users. Its development began in 1978. ...

, which was said to refer to "Local Integrated Software Architecture", but was actually named after Steve Jobs's daughter, born in 1978. Backronyms are oftentimes used for comedic effect. An example of creating a backronym for comedic effect would be in naming a group or organization, the name "A.C.R.O.N.Y.M" stands for (among other things) "a clever regiment of nerdy young men".

Contrived acronyms

Acronyms are sometimes

contrived Contrived is a Canadian indie rock band."C ...

, that is, deliberately designed to be especially apt for the thing being named (by having a dual meaning or by borrowing the positive connotations of an existing word). Some examples of contrived acronyms are '' USA PATRIOT'', ''CAN SPAM'', ''

CAPTCHA A CAPTCHA ( , a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") is a type of challenge–response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. The term was coined in 2003 ...

'' and ''

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

''. The clothing company

French Connection The French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Indochina through Turkey to France and then to the United States and Canada, sometimes through Cuba. The operation started in the 1930s, reached its peak in the 1960s, and ...

began referring to itself as ''fcuk'', standing for "French Connection United Kingdom". The company then created T-shirts and several advertising campaigns that exploit the acronym's similarity to the taboo word "

". The US Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

) is known for developing contrived acronyms to name projects, including ''RESURRECT'', ''NIRVANA'', and ''DUDE''. In July 2010, ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' magazine reported that DARPA announced programs to "... transform biology from a descriptive to a predictive field of science" named ''BATMAN'' and ''ROBIN'' for "Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature" and "Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks", a reference to the

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

and

Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

comic-book superheroes. The short-form names of clinical trials and other scientific studies constitute a large class of acronyms that includes many contrived examples, as well as many with a partial rather than complete correspondence of letters to expansion components. These trials tend to have full names that are accurately descriptive of what the trial is about but are thus also too long to serve practically as

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

s within the syntax of a sentence, so a short name is also developed, which can serve as a syntactically useful handle and also provide at least a degree of

reminder as to the full name. Examples widely known in

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

include the ALLHAT trial (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial) and the CHARM trial (Candesartan in Heart Failure: Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and Morbidity). The fact that

RAS syndrome RAS syndrome (where "RAS" stands for "redundant acronym syndrome", making the phrase "RAS syndrome" Autological word, homological) is the redundant use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym (or other initialism) in conjunction with ...

is often involved, as well as that the letters often don't entirely match, have sometimes been pointed out by annoyed researchers preoccupied by the idea that because the

archetypal The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...

form of acronyms originated with one-to-one letter matching, there must be some impropriety in their ever deviating from that form. However, the

raison d'être Raison d'être is a French expression commonly used in English, meaning "reason for being" or "reason to be". Raison d'être may refer to: Music * Raison d'être (band), a Swedish dark-ambient-industrial-drone music project * ''Raison D'être' ...

of clinical trial acronyms, as with gene and protein symbols, is simply to have a syntactically usable and easily recalled short name to complement the long name that is often syntactically unusable and not memorized. It is useful for the short name to give a reminder of the long name, which supports the reasonable censure of "cutesy" examples that provide little to no hint of it. But beyond that reasonably close correspondence, the short name's chief utility is in functioning cognitively as a

, rather than being a

cryptic Cryptic may refer to: In science: * Cryptic species complex, a group of species that are very difficult to distinguish from one another * Crypsis, the ability of animals to blend in to avoid observation * Cryptic era, earliest period of the Earth ...

and forgettable string, albeit faithful to the matching of letters. However, other reasonable critiques have been (1) that it is irresponsible to mention trial acronyms without explaining them at least once by providing the long names somewhere in the document, and (2) that the proliferation of trial acronyms has resulted in ambiguity, such as 3 different trials all called ASPECT, which is another reason why failing to explain them somewhere in the document is irresponsible in scientific communication. At least one study has evaluated the

citation impact Citation impact is a measure of how many times an academic journal article or book or author is cited by other articles, books or authors. Citation counts are interpreted as measures of the impact or influence of academic work and have given rise ...

and other traits of acronym-named trials compared with others, finding both good aspects (mnemonic help, name recall) and potential flaws ( connotatively driven

bias Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...

). Some acronyms are chosen deliberately to avoid a name considered undesirable: For example, '' Verliebt in Berlin'' (''ViB''), a German

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

, was first intended to be ' (''All for Love''), but was changed to avoid the resultant acronym ''

ANAL Anal may refer to: Related to the anus *Related to the anus of animals: ** Anal fin, in fish anatomy ** Anal vein, in insect anatomy ** Anal scale, in reptile anatomy *Related to the human anus: ** Anal sex, a type of sexual activity involvin ...

''. Likewise, the Computer Literacy and Internet Technology qualification is known as ''CLaIT'', rather than ''

CLIT The clitoris ( or ) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion – the glans – is at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the ope ...

''. In Canada, the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance (Party) was quickly renamed to the "Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance" when its opponents pointed out that its initials spelled CCRAP (pronounced "see

crap Crap or craps may refer to: * Crap, a slang term for feces * Craps, a dice game * ''Craps'' (album), by Big Dipper, 1988 * ''Commandos de recherche et d'action en profondeur'', the former name of France's Commando Parachute Group * "Create, ...

"). Two Irish Institutes of Technology (Galway and Tralee) chose different acronyms from other institutes when they were upgraded from Regional Technical colleges. Tralee RTC became the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT), as opposed to Tralee Institute of Technology ( TIT). Galway RTC became Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), as opposed to Galway Institute of Technology (

GIT Git () is a distributed version control system: tracking changes in any set of files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers collaboratively developing source code during software development. Its goals include speed, data inte ...

). The charity sports organization

Team in Training Team In Training (TNT) is the flagship fundraising program for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. TNT is the only endu ...

is known as "TNT" and not "TIT".

Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences The Technological Institute of Textile and Sciences (TITS) is an Indian technical college. It offers engineering and postgraduate programs. It is one of the oldest colleges in India. The institute provides lectures by in-house and visiting fa ...

, however, is still known as "TITS".

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

was planning to name their law school the "Antonin Scalia School of Law" ( ASSOL) in honor of the late

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...

, only to change it to the "Antonin Scalia Law School" later.

Macronyms/nested acronyms

A macronym, or nested acronym, is an acronym in which one or more letters stand for acronyms (or abbreviations) themselves. The word "macronym" is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsmacro- Macro (or MACRO) may refer to: Science and technology * Macroscopic, subjects visible to the eye * Macro photography, a type of close-up photography * Image macro, a picture with text superimposed * Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observ ...

" and "acronym". Some examples of macronyms are: * XHR stands for "XML HTTP Request", in which "

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

" is "Extensible Markup Language", and

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...

stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol" *

POWER Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

stands for "Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC", in which "

RISC In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set comput ...

" stands for "Reduced Instruction Set Computing" *

VHDL The VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is a hardware description language (HDL) that can model the behavior and structure of digital systems at multiple levels of abstraction, ranging from the system level down to that of logic gates ...

stands for "VHSIC Hardware Description Language", in which " VHSIC" stands for "Very High Speed Integrated Circuit" *

XSD XSD (XML Schema Definition), a recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C), specifies how to formally describe the elements in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document. It can be used by programmers to verify each piece of item con ...

stands for "XML Schema Definition", in which "

" stands for "Extensible Markup Language" * AIM stands for "AOL Instant Messenger", in which "

" originally stood for "America Online" * HASP stood for "Houston Automatic Spooling Priority", but "

spooling In computing, spooling is a specialized form of multi-programming for the purpose of copying data between different devices. In contemporary systems, it is usually used for mediating between a computer application and a slow peripheral, such as ...

" itself was an acronym: "simultaneous peripheral operations on-line" *

VORTAC Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...

stands for "VOR+TACAN", in which "VOR" is "

VHF omnidirectional range Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...

" (where VHF = Very High Frequency radio) and "TAC" is short for

TACAN A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a mor ...

, which stands for "Tactical Air Navigation" *

Global Information Assurance Certification Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) is an information security certification entity that specialises in technical and practical certification as well as new research in the form of its GIAC Gold program. SANS Institute founded the ce ...

has a number of nested acronyms for its certifications, e.g. "GSEC" is an acronym for "GIAC Security Essentials" Some macronyms can be multiply nested: the second-order acronym points to another one further down a hierarchy. In an informal competition run by the magazine ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'', a fully documented specimen was discovered that may be the most deeply nested of all: RARS is the "Regional ATOVS Retransmission Service"; ATOVS is "Advanced TOVS"; TOVS is "

TIROS TIROS, or Television InfraRed Observation Satellite, is a series of early weather satellites launched by the United States, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was capable of remote sensing of the Earth, enablin ...

operational vertical sounder"; and TIROS is "Television infrared observational satellite". Fully expanded, "RARS" might thus become "Regional Advanced Television Infrared Observational Satellite Operational Vertical Sounder Retransmission Service", which would produce the much more unwieldy acronym "RATIOSOVSRS". Another example is VITAL, which expands to "

Initiative Towards

ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...

Libraries" (a total of 15 words when fully expanded). However, to say that "RARS" stands directly for that string of words, or can be interchanged with it in

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

(in the same way that "CHF" can be usefully interchanged with "congestive heart failure"), is a

prescriptive Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...

misapprehension rather than a linguistically accurate description; the true nature of such a term is closer to anacronymic than to being interchangeable like simpler acronyms are. The latter are fully reducible in an attempt to "spell everything out and avoid all abbreviations", but the former are irreducible in that respect; they can be

annotated An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented in the margin of book pages. For anno ...

with parenthetical explanations, but they cannot be eliminated from speech or writing in any useful or practical way. Just as the words ''laser'' and ''radar'' function as words in

and

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

without a need to focus on their acronymic origins, terms such as "RARS" and "

CHA2DS2–VASc score The CHADS2 score and its updated version, the CHA2DS2-VASc score, are clinical prediction rules for estimating the risk of stroke in people with non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation (AF), a common and serious heart arrhythmia associated with ...

" are irreducible in

natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

; if they are purged, the form of language that is left may conform to some imposed rule, but it cannot be described as remaining natural. Similarly,

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

and

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

nomenclature, which uses symbols extensively, includes such terms as the name of the NACHT protein domain, which reflects the symbols of some proteins that contain the domain – NAIP (NLR family apoptosis

inhibitor protein The inhibitor protein (IP) is situated in the mitochondrial matrix and protects the cell against rapid ATP hydrolysis during momentary ischaemia Ischemia American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or ischaemia is a restric ...

), C2TA (major histocompatibility complex class II transcription activator), HET-E (incompatibility locus protein from ''Podospora anserine''), and TP1 (telomerase-associated protein) – but is not syntactically reducible to them. The name is thus itself more symbol than acronym, and its expansion cannot replace it while preserving its function in natural syntax as a

within a

clause In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...

clearly

parsable Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term ''parsing'' comes from L ...

by human readers or listeners.

Recursive acronyms

A special type of macronym, the

recursive acronym A recursive acronym is an acronym that refers to itself, and appears most frequently in computer programming. The term was first used in print in 1979 in Douglas Hofstadter's book '' Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'', in which Hof ...

, has letters whose expansion refers back to the macronym itself. One of the earliest examples appears in ''

The Hacker's Dictionary The Jargon File is a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) and others of the old ARPANET ...

'' as MUNG, which stands for "MUNG Until No Good". Some examples of recursive acronyms are: *

stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" *

LAME Lame or LAME may refer to: Music * "Lame" (song) by Unwritten Law * ''Lame'' (album) by Iame People * Ibrahim Lame (born 1953), Nigerian educator and politician * Jennifer Lame (), American film editor * Quintín Lame (1880–1967), Colombian ...

stands for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder" *

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...

stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" *

WINE Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator" *

stands for "HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons", where HIRD itself stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth" (a "mutually recursive" acronym)

Non-English languages

Specific languages

Chinese

In English language discussions of languages with

logographic In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, a ...

writing systems (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), "acronyms" describe the short forms that take selected characters from a multi-character word. For example, in Chinese, "university" (/, literally "great learning") is usually abbreviated simply as ("great") when used with the name of the institute. So "

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

" () is commonly shortened to ( "north-great") by also only taking the first character of ''Peking'', the "northern capital" (). In some cases, however, other characters than the first can be selected. For example, the local short form of "

Hong Kong University The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fir ...

" () uses "Kong" () rather than "Hong". There are also cases where some longer phrases are abbreviated drastically, especially in Chinese politics, where proper nouns were initially translated from Soviet Leninist terms. For instance, the full name of China's highest ruling council, the

Politburo Standing Committee The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Histori ...

(PSC), is "Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China" (). The term then reduced the "Communist Party of China" part of its name through acronyms, then the "Standing Committee" part, again through acronyms, to create "". Alternatively, it omitted the "Communist Party" part altogether, creating "Politburo Standing Committee" (), and eventually just "Standing Committee" (). The PSC's members full designations are "Member of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China" (); this was eventually drastically reduced to simply ''Changwei'' (), with the term ''Ruchang'' () used increasingly for officials destined for a future seat on the PSC. In another example, the word "" (

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2, ...

) can be broken into four parts: "" = "the whole nation", "" = "people", "" = "representatives", "" = "conference". Yet, in its short form "" (literally "man/people big"), only the first characters from the second and the fourth parts are selected; the first part ("") and the third part ("") are simply ignored. In describing such abbreviations, the term ''initialism'' is inapplicable. Many proper nouns become shorter and shorter over time. For example, the

CCTV New Year's Gala The ''CCTV New Year's Gala'', also known as the ''Spring Festival Gala'', and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as ''Chunwan'', is a Chinese New Year special produced by China Media Group (CMG). It is broadcast annually on the eve of Chinese N ...

, whose full name is literally read as "China Central Television Spring Festival Joint Celebration Evening Gala" () was first shortened to "Spring Festival Joint Celebration Evening Gala" (), but eventually referred to as simply ''Chunwan'' (). Along the same vein, CCTV or ''Zhongguo Zhongyang Dianshi Tai'' () was reduced to ''Yangshi'' () in the mid-2000s.

Korean

Many aspects of academics in Korea follow similar acronym patterns as Chinese, owing to the two languages' commonalities, like using the word for "big" or "great" i.e. ''dae'' (), to refer to universities (; ''daehak'', literally "great learning" although "big school" is an acceptable alternate). They can be interpreted similarly to American university appellations such as, "UPenn" or "Texas Tech." Some acronyms are shortened forms of the school's name, like how

Hongik University Hongik University (, colloquially ''Hongdae'') is a private university in Seoul, South Korea. Founded by an activist in 1946, the university is located in Mapo-gu district of central Seoul, South Korea with a second campus(branch campus) in S ...

(, ''Hongik Daehakgyo'') is shortened to ''Hongdae'' (, "Hong, the big chool or "Hong-U") Other acronyms can refer to the university's main subject, e.g.

Korea National University of Education Korea National University of Education (Acronym: KNUE; Korean: , ''Hanguk Kyowon Daehakgyo'', colloquially ''Kyowondae'') is a South Korean national university which specializes in pre- and in-service teacher training and educational research. ...

(, ''Hanguk Gyowon Daehakgyo'') is shortened to ''Gyowondae'' (교원대, "Big Ed." or "Ed.-U"). Other schools use a Koreanized version of their English acronym. The

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, research ...

(, ''Hanguk Gwahak Gisulwon'') is referred to as KAIST (, ''Kaiseuteu'') in both English and Korean. The 3 most prestigious schools in Korea are known as SKY (스카이, ''seukai''), combining the first letter of their English names (Seoul National, Korea, and Yonsei Universities). In addition, the College Scholastic Ability Test (, ''Daehak Suhang Neungryeok Siheom'') is shortened to ''Suneung'' (, "S.A.").

Japanese

The

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

makes extensive use of abbreviations, but only some of these are acronyms. Chinese-based words (

Sino-Japanese vocabulary Sino-Japanese vocabulary, also known as refers to Japanese vocabulary that had originated in Chinese or were created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Some grammatical structures and sentence patterns can also be identified as Sino-Japanese. Si ...

) uses similar acronym formation to Chinese, like for . In some cases alternative pronunciations are used, as in Saikyō for 埼京, from , rather than Saitō. Non-Chinese foreign borrowings (

gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word", and indicates a transcription into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed in ancient times from Old or Middle Chinese (especially Literary Chinese) ...

) are instead frequently abbreviated as

clipped compound ''Clipped'' is a video featuring five tracks by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. First released in 1991, it contained three tracks from ''The Razors Edge (AC/DC album), The Razors Edge'' and two from ''Blow Up Your Video''. In 2002 a DVD ve ...

s, rather than acronyms, using several initial sounds. This is visible in

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

transcriptions of foreign words, but is also found with native words (written in

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

). For example, the ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' media franchise's name originally stood for "pocket monsters" ( o-ke-tto-mon-su-tā→ ), which is still the long-form of the name in Japanese, and " wāpuro" stands for "

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...

" ( ā-do-pu-ro-se-ssā�� ).

German

To a greater degree than English does, German tends toward acronyms that use initial syllables rather than initial single letters, although it uses many of the latter type as well. Some examples of the syllabic type are ''

'' rather than ''GSP'' (for ', 'Secret State Police'); ' rather than ''FAK'' (for ',

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

gun); ' rather than ''KP'' (for ', detective division police). The extension of such contraction to a pervasive or whimsical degree has been mockingly labeled ' (for ', strange habit of abbreviating). Examples of include ' (for ', short in the front, long in the back, i.e., a mullet) and the mocking of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's title as ' (', "Greatest General of all Times").

Hebrew

It is common to take more than just one initial letter from each of the words composing the acronym; regardless of this, the abbreviation sign gershayim is always written between the second-last and last letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym, even if by this it separates letters of the same original word. Examples (keep in mind Hebrew reads right-to-left): (for , the United States); (for , the Soviet Union); (for ,

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ar ...

); (for , the school). An example that takes only the initial letters from its component words is (''Tzahal'', for ,

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

). In inflected forms the abbreviation sign gershayim remains between the second-last and last letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym (e.g. "report", singular: , plural: ; "squad commander", masculine: , feminine: ).

Indonesian

There is also a widespread use of acronyms in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

in every aspect of social life. For example, the ''

Golkar ) , foundation = , youth = AMPG (Golkar Party Young Force) , women = KPPG (Golkar Party Women's Corps) , newspaper = '' Suara Karya'' (1971–2016) , headquarters = Jakarta , ideology ...

'' political party stands for "Partai Golongan Karya", ''

Monas The National Monument ( id, Monumen Nasional, abbreviated Monas) is a 132 m (433 ft) obelisk in the centre of Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, symbolizing the fight for Indonesia. It is the national monument of the Republic of Indones ...

'' stands for "Monumen Nasional" (National Monument), the ''Angkot'' public transport stands for "Angkutan Kota" ( city public transportation), ''warnet'' stands for "warung internet" (

internet cafe The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

), and many others. Some acronyms are considered formal (or officially adopted), while many more are considered informal,

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conver ...

. The capital's metropolitan area (

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

and its surrounding satellite regions), ''

Jabodetabek The Jakarta metropolitan area or Greater Jakarta, known locally as Jabodetabek (an acronym of Jakarta–Bogor–Depok–Tangerang–Bekasi), and sometimes extended to Jabodetabekjur (with the acronym extended to include part of Cianjur Regency) ...

'', is another infamous acronym. This stands for "Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi". Many highways are also named by the acronym method; e.g. ''Jalan Tol'' (Toll Road) ''Jagorawi'' (Jakarta-Bogor-Ciawi) and ''Purbaleunyi'' (Purwakarta-Bandung-Cileunyi), Joglo Semar (Jogja-Solo-Semarang). In some languages, especially those that use certain

alphabets An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

, many acronyms come from the governmental use, particularly in the military and law enforcement services. The

Indonesian military , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo ...

(TNI – ''Tentara Nasional Indonesia'') and

Indonesian police '' , mottotranslated = (Serving the Nation) , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , employees = 440,000 (2020) , volunteers = , budget = , nongovernment ...

(POLRI – ''Kepolisian Republik Indonesia'') are infamous for heavy acronyms use. Examples include the ''

Kopassus The Kopassus ( id, Komando Pasukan Khusus, Special Forces Command) is an Indonesian Army (TNI-AD) special forces group that conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government, such as direct action, unconventional warfare, sa ...

'' (''Komando Pasukan Khusus'';

Special Forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

Command), '' Kopaska'' (''Komando Pasukan Katak'';

Frogmen A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, comb ...

Command), ''Kodim'' (''Komando Distrik Militer''; Military District Command – one of the Indonesian army's

administrative divisions Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

), ''Serka'' (''Sersan Kepala''; Head

Sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

), ''Akmil'' (''Akademi Militer''; Military Academy – in

Magelang Magelang () is one of six cities in Central Java that are administratively independent of the regencies in which they lie geographically. Each of these cities is governed by a mayor rather than a ''bupati''. Magelang city covers an area of 18. ...

) and many other terms regarding ranks, units, divisions, procedures, etc.

Malay

Although not as common as in Indonesian, a number of Malay words are formed by merging two words, such as ''tadika'' from "taman didikan kanak-kanak" (kindergarten) and ''pawagam'' from "panggung wayang gambar." This, however, has been less prevalent in the modern era, in contrary to Indonesian. It is still often for names such as organisation names, among the most famous being MARA from

Majlis Amanah Rakyat The Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA; ms, People's Trust Council) is a Malaysian government agency. It was formed to aid, train, and guide Bumiputra (Malay people, Malays and other indigenous Malaysians) in the areas of business and industry. MARA ...

(People's Trust Council,) a government agency in Malaysia. Some acronyms are developed from the Jawi (Malay in Arabic script) spelling of the name and may not reflect its Latin counterpart such as PAS from

Parti Islam Se-Malaysia The Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS; ms, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia; ms, ڤرتي إسلام سمليسيا, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset) is an Islamist political party in Malaysia. As the party focused on Islamic fundamentalism, PAS's ...

(Malaysian Islamic Party) which originated from the Jawi acronym ڤاس from ڤرتي إسلام سمليسيا, with the same pronunciation, since the first letter of the word "Islam" in Jawi uses the letter

Aleph Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez . These letter ...

, which is pronounced like the letter A when in such position as in the acronym. Rules in writing initialisms in Malay differ based on its script. In its Latin form, the initialism would be spelt much like in English, using capitals written without any spacing, such as TNB for

Tenaga Nasional Berhad Tenaga Nasional Berhad (, abbreviated as TNB; TENAGA, ), also known as Tenaga Nasional or simply Tenaga, is the Malaysian multinational electricity company and is the only electric utility company in Peninsular Malaysia and also the largest p ...

. In Jawi, however, the way initialisms are different depending on the source language. For Malay initialisms, the initial Jawi letters would be written separated by a period such as د.ب.ڤ for ديوان بهاس دان ڤوستاک. If the initialism is from a different language, however, it would be written by transliterating each letter from the original language, such as عيم.سي.عيم.سي. for MCMC, or الفا.ڤي.ثيتا for Α.Π.Θ.

Russian

Acronyms that use parts of words (not necessarily syllables) are commonplace in Russian as well, e.g. (

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

), for (', "gas industry"). There are also initialisms, such as СМИ (''SMI'', for ', "means of mass informing", i.e. ГУЛаг (

GULag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

) combines two initials and three letters of the final word: it stands for (', "Chief Administration of Camps"). Historically, "

OTMA OTMA was an acronym sometimes used by the four daughters of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in t ...

" was an acronym sometimes used by the daughters of

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

and his consort, Alexandra Feodorovna, as a group nickname for themselves, built from the first letter of each girl's name in the order of their births: "Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia".

Swahili

In Swahili, acronyms are common for naming organizations such as "TUKI", which stands for ' (the Institute for Swahili Research). Multiple initial letters (often the initial syllable of words) are often drawn together, as seen more in some languages than others.

Vietnamese

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

, which has an abundance of compound words, initialisms are very commonly used for both proper and common nouns. Examples include '' TP.HCM'' (',

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

), '' THPT'' (', high school), '' CLB'' (', club), '' CSDL'' (', database), '' NXB'' (', publisher), '' ÔBACE'' (', a general form of address), and '' CTTĐVN'' (',

Vietnamese Martyrs The Vietnamese Martyrs (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''Các Thánh Tử đạo Việt Nam''; French language, French: ''Martyrs du Viêt Nam''), also known as the Martyrs of Annam, Martyrs of Tonkin and Cochinchina, Martyrs of Indochina, or An ...

). Longer examples include '' CHXHCNVN'' (',

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

) and '' MTDTGPMNVN'' ('''',

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

). Long initialisms have become widespread in legal contexts in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, for example . It is also common for a writer to coin an ad hoc initialism for repeated use in an article. Each letter in an initialism corresponds to one

, that is, one syllable. When the first letter of a syllable has a tone mark or other diacritic, the diacritic may be omitted from the initialism, for example ''ĐNA'' or ''ĐNÁ'' for ' (

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

) and ''LMCA'' or ''LMCÂ'' for ''Liên minh châu Âu'' (

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

). The letter " Ư" is often replaced by "W" in initialisms to avoid confusion with "U", for example ''UBTWMTTQVN'' or ''UBTƯMTTQVN'' for ''Ủy ban Trung ương Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam'' (Central Committee of the

Vietnamese Fatherland Front The Vietnamese Fatherland Front ( vi, Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam) is an umbrella group of mass movements in Vietnam aligned with the Communist Party of Vietnam forming the Vietnamese government. It was founded in February 1977 by the m ...

). Initialisms are purely a written convenience, being pronounced the same way as their expansions. As the names of many Vietnamese letters are disyllabic, it would be less convenient to pronounce an initialism by its individual letters. Acronyms pronounced as words are rare in Vietnamese, occurring when an acronym itself is borrowed from another language. Examples include ' (), a respelling of the French acronym ''SIDA'' (

); ' (), a literal reading of the English initialism for

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

; and ''

'' (), borrowed directly from the English acronym. As in

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, many compound words can be shortened to the first syllable when forming a longer word. For example, the term

Việt Cộng The Viet Cong, ; contraction of (Vietnamese communist) was an armed Communism, communist organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It fought under the direction of North Vietnam against the South Vietnamese and United States governments ...

is derived from the first syllables of "Việt Nam" (Vietnam) and "Cộng sản" (communist). This mechanism is limited to

Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary ( vi, từ Hán Việt, Chữ Hán: 詞漢越, literally 'Chinese language, Chinese-Vietnamese words') is a layer of some 3,000 monosyllabic Morpheme, morphemes of the Vietnamese language borrowed from Literary Chinese wi ...

. Unlike with Chinese, such

s are considered to be

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsblend word In linguistics, a blend (sometimes called blend word, lexical blend, portmanteau or portmanteau word) is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. At least one of these parts is not a morph (the realization of a morpheme) but instead ...

s rather than acronyms or initialisms, because the

Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally develo ...

still requires each component word to be written as more than one character.

General grammatical considerations

Declension

In languages where nouns are declined, various methods are used. An example is

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, where a colon is used to separate inflection from the letters: *An acronym is pronounced as a word: Nato – "into Nato", ''Nasalta'' "from

" *An acronym is pronounced as letters: EU – "into EU" *An acronym is interpreted as words: EU – "into EU" The process above is similar to the way that hyphens are used for clarity in English when prefixes are added to acronyms: thus ''pre-NATO policy'' (rather than ''preNATO'').

Lenition

In languages such as

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

, where

lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...

(initial consonant mutation) is commonplace, acronyms must also be modified in situations where case and context dictate it. In the case of Scottish Gaelic, a lower-case ''h'' is often added after the initial consonant; for example, ''

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

'' in the genitive case would be written as , with the acronym pronounced ''VBC''. Likewise, the Gaelic acronym for 'television' is , pronounced ''TV'', as in English.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control * Types of words