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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 and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages: * Greek and Latin roots from A to G * Greek and Latin roots from H to O * Greek and Latin roots from P to Z. Some ...
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 ''
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 ) 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 ''
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 ...
'' () 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., ''
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 ...
'' 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'' 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 ...
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 **
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" **
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" **
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 ...
: (''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 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 exam. ...
...
: "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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
: "United States of America" ** 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 criteria, SMART (Smart) "Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-related", A principle of setting of goals and objectives **FAST (stroke), FAST (Fast) "Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties, Time", helps detect and enhance responsiveness to the needs of a person having a stroke **Don't repeat yourself, DRY (Dry) "Don't repeat yourself", A principle of software development aimed at reducing repetition of software patterns *Multi-layered acronyms **AIM (software), AIM: "AOL Instant Messenger," in which "AOL" originally stood for "America Online" **ASEAN Free Trade Area, AFTA: "ASEAN Free Trade Area," where ASEAN stands for "Association of Southeast Asian Nations" **NAC Breda: (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: "GNU image manipulation program" *Recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation Self-reference, refers to itself **GNU: "GNU's not Unix!" **Wine (software), Wine: "Wine is not an emulator" (originally, "Windows emulator") **TLA: Three Lettered Acronyms **These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found: ***GNU Hurd, HURD: "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 gramograms. **CQ (call), CQ: ''cee-cue'' for "seek you", a code used by radio operators **IOU (debt), IOU: ''i-o-u'' for "I owe you" **K9 (disambiguation), K9: ''kay-nine'' for "canine," used to designate police units utilizing dogs *Abbreviations whose last abbreviated word is often RAS Syndrome, redundantly included anyway **Automated teller machine, ATM machine: "automated teller machine" (machine) **Human immunodeficiency virus, HIV virus: "human immunodeficiency virus" (virus) **Liquid-crystal display, LCD display: "liquid-crystal display" (display) **Personal identification number, PIN number: "personal identification number" (number) *Pronounced as a word, containing letters as a word in itself **Pay as you go (disambiguation), PAYGO: "pay-as-you-go"


Historical and current use

Acronymy, like retronymy, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no metalanguage, naming, conscious attention, or linguistics, 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'' ('). Inscriptions dating from antiquity, both on stone and on coins, use many abbreviations and acronyms to save space and work. For example, praenomen, 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 icons and the stamps used to mark the eucharistic bread in Eastern Christianity, Eastern Churches. * 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 in part because of an acronym (or backronym): "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 of Rome. Another ancient acronym for Jesus is the inscription ''INRI'' 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", an acronym composed from the Hebrew initial letters of its three major sections: "Torah" (five books of Moses), "Nevi'im" (prophets), and "K'tuvim" (writings). Many rabbinical figures from the Middle Ages onward are referred to in rabbinical literature by their pronounced acronyms, such as Maimonides, Rambam and Rashi 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 names, such as on the sides of railroad cars (e.g., "Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad" → "RF&P"); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on ticker tape 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" ("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" (from "S.O.", from "Standard Oil"), and "Sunoco" ("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 (acronyms such as "Army of Northern Virginia, ANV" for "Army of Northern Virginia" postdate the war itself), they became somewhat common in World War I, and by World War II they were widespread even in the slang of soldiers, who referred to themselves as G.I. (military), G.I.s. The widespread, frequent use of acronyms across the whole range of linguistic register (sociolinguistics), 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 ''
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 ...
'' (''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 [English] word 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 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 story of the 1830s, "How to Write a Blackwood Article", 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 vernaculars has been pan-European and predates modern English. Some examples of acronyms in this class are: *''12-hour clock, A.M.'' (from Latin ', "before noon") and ''12-hour clock, P.M.'' (from Latin ', "after noon") *''A.D.'' (from Latin ', "in the year of our Lord"), whose complement in English, ''B.C.'' [Before Christ], is English-sourced The earliest example of a word derived from an acronym listed by the ''Oxford English Dictionary, OED'' 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 of England, Charles II's Committee for Foreign Affairs to produce the Cabal ministry, "CABAL" ministry. ''Okay, 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 Military, armed forces 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 (linguistics), alphabet soup") created under the New Deal by Franklin D. Roosevelt (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 (SMS), and instant messenger (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 Linguistic prescription, prescriptivists disdain texting acronyms and abbreviations as decreasing clarity, or as failure to use "pure" or "proper" English. Others point out that languages have always language change, 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
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. ...
( or ) and BIOS (, , or ). Similarly, some letter-by-letter initialisms may become word acronyms over time, especially in combining forms: ''IP'' for ''Internet Protocol'' is generally said as two letters, but ''IPsec'' 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 SQL Server, Microsoft's implementation is traditionally pronounced like the word ''sequel''.


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 E-text, electronic text.


Jargon

While acronyms provide convenience and succinctness for specialists, they often degenerate into confusing jargon. 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 devices: for example the colors of the rainbow are ROY G. BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). They are also used as mental checklists: in aviation GUMPS stands for gas-undercarriage-mixture-propeller-seatbelts. Other mnemonic acronyms include CAN SLIM in finance, PAVPANIC in English grammar, and PEMDAS in mathematics.


Acronyms as legendary etymology

It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of false etymology, called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in historical linguistics, and are examples of language-related urban legends. For example, "Police officer, cop" is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol", and "posh (nautical term), posh" from "port outward, starboard home".; published in the US as With some of these specious expansions, the "belief" that the etymology is acronymic has clearly been tongue-in-cheek among many citers, as with "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden" for "golf", although many other (more wikt:credulous, credulous) people have uncritically taken it for fact. Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies: "shit" from "ship/store high in transit" or "special high-intensity training" and "fuck" 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, full stop/period/point in place of the deleted part to show the ellipsis of letters – although the colon (punctuation), colon and apostrophe 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
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, such as that of the BBC, no longer require punctuation to show ellipsis; some even proscribe it. Larry Trask, American author of ''The Penguin Books, Penguin Guide to Punctuation'', states categorically that, in British English, "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete."


=Pronunciation-dependent style and periods

= Nevertheless, some influential
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, many of them American English, American, still require periods in certain instances. For example, ''
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, ...
'' recommends following each segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in "KGB, K.G.B.", but not when pronounced as a word, 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 ...
". 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" (or the Latin ''postscriptum''), it is often spelled with periods ("P.S."). The slash (punctuation), slash ('/', 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. For example, "i18n" abbreviates "internationalization", 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" "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 medical history, history, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and therapy, 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, 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 AssociationModern Language Association (MLA) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition 2009, subsection 3.2.7.g and American Psychological AssociationPublication 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 ''
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, ...
'' 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. 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 adjective, attributive 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" 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 scheme seen with acronyms is all-uppercase (all caps), 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 "scuba set, scuba", "laser", and "
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 ...
": these are known as ''anacronyms''. Anacronyms (note well ''-acro-'') should not be homophone, homophonously confused with misnomer#Anachronym, anachronyms (note well ''-chron-''), which are a type of misnomer.


Small-caps variant

Small caps 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'' and ''USA Today'', is to use small caps for acronyms longer than three letters; thus "U.S." and "Franklin D. Roosevelt, FDR" in normal caps, but "" in small caps. The acronyms "Anno Domini, AD" and "Before Christ, 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". In some cases a derived acronym may also be expressed in mixed case. For example, "messenger RNA" and "transfer RNA" 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'', and BBC News 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' Letter case, case 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 "United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef" (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 words (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). 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''); this usually occurs when the acronym represents a multi-word proper noun. Numbers (both cardinal number, cardinal and ordinal number, ordinal) in names are often represented by numerical digit, digits rather than initial letters, as in "4GL" ("fourth generation language") or "G77" ("Group of 77"). Large numbers may use SI prefix#Use outside SI, metric prefixes, as with "Y2K" for "Year 2000" (sometimes written "Y2k", because the SI symbol for 1000 is "k", not "K", which stands for "kelvin", the SI unit for temperature). Exceptions using initials for numbers include "three letter acronym, TLA" ("three-letter acronym/abbreviation") and "GoF" ("Gang of Four (software), Gang of Four"). Abbreviations using numbers for other purposes include repetitions, such as "
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 ...
" ("Advanced Audio Distribution Profile"), "
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 ...
" ("World Wide Web Consortium"), and ''WVOX#Notable Past Programming, T3'' (''Trends, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living''); pronunciation, such as "Business-to-business, B2B" ("business to business"); and numeronyms, such as "i18n" ("internationalization"; "18" represents the 18 letters between the initial "i" and the final "n").


Casing of expansions

Authors of expository writing will sometimes capitalize or otherwise distinctively format the initials of the expansion for pedagogical 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.


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 (disambiguation), 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", a US college entrance test originally dubbed "Scholastic Aptitude Test", no longer officially stand for anything. The US-based Abortion-rights movements, abortion-rights organization "NARAL Pro-Choice America, NARAL" 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 while moving away from an outdated image: American Telephone and Telegraph became AT&T Corporation, AT&T, "KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken" became "KFC" to de-emphasize the role of frying in the preparation of its signature dishes, and BP, British Petroleum became BP. ''RT (TV network), Russia Today'' has rebranded itself as ''RT''. American Movie Classics has simply rebranded itself as AMC. Genzyme Transgenics Corporation became GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc.; The Learning Channel became TLC; and American District Telegraph became simply known as ADT. Pseudo-acronyms may have advantages in international markets: for example, some national Affiliate (commerce), affiliates 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 AG, UBS is the name of the merged Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation, and HSBC 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 continues to operate under the full name in Canada, but its U.S. subsidiary is known as TD Bank, N.A., TD Bank, just as Royal Bank of Canada used its full name in Canada (a constitutional monarchy), but its now-defunct U.S. subsidiary was called RBC Bank. The India-based JSW Group 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 RAS syndrome, redundant acronym syndrome, as when Trustee Savings Bank became TSB Bank, or when Railway Express Agency became REA Express. A few high-tech 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'' and ''NCIS (TV series), 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 Royal Bank of Canada's Canadian operations rebranded to RBC Royal Bank, or when Bank of Montreal rebranded their retail banking subsidiary BMO Bank of Montreal. Another common example is "random-access memory, RAM 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 "Personal identification number, PIN number"; in this case its retention may be motivated to avoid ambiguity with the homophonous word "pin". Other examples include "automated teller machine, ATM machine", "European American Bank, EAB bank", "HIV virus", Microsoft's Windows NT, NT Technology, and the formerly redundant "SAT test", now simply "SAT Reasoning Test"). Spike (TV network), 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 was originally an acronym for the unofficial term "digital video disc", but is now stated by the DVD Forum as standing for "Digital Versatile Disc" *Government Accountability Office, GAO changed the full form of its name from "General Accounting Office" to "Government Accountability Office" *United States Government Publishing Office, GPO changed the full form of its name from "Government Printing Office" to "Government Publishing Office" *RAID was originally an acronym for "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks" but has since been redefined as "Redundant Array of Independent Disks" *The Union for International Cancer Control, UICC was founded as the "International Union Against Cancer", and its initials originally came from the Romance languages, 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. *World Wide Fund for Nature, 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
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 ...
that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word. For example, the novelist and critic Anthony Burgess 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, 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 wikt:contrive#Verb, contrived, 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 Act, USA PATRIOT'', Can Spam Act, ''CAN SPAM'', ''CAPTCHA'' and ''AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP''. The clothing company French Connection (clothing), French Connection 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 "fuck". The US Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is known for developing contrived acronyms to name projects, including ''RESURRECT'', ''NIRVANA'', and ''DUDE''. In July 2010, ''Wired (magazine), Wired'' 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 and Robin (comics), Robin comic-book superheroes. The short-form Clinical trial naming conventions, 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 names 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 mnemonic reminder as to the full name. Examples widely known in medicine 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 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 Archetype, archetypal form of acronyms originated with one-to-one letter matching, there must be some impropriety in their ever deviating from that form. However, the wikt:raison d'être, raison d'être of clinical trial acronyms, as with Gene nomenclature#Symbol and name, gene and protein symbols, is simply to have a syntactically usable and easily Recall (memory), recalled short name to complement the long name that is often syntactically unusable and not Memorization, 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 name, rather than being a wikt:cryptic#Adjective, cryptic 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 and other traits of acronym-named trials compared with others, finding both good aspects (mnemonic help, name recall) and potential flaws (Connotation, connotatively driven bias). Some acronyms are chosen deliberately to avoid a name considered undesirable: For example, ''Verliebt in Berlin'' (''ViB''), a German telenovela, was first intended to be ' (''All for Love''), but was changed to avoid the resultant acronym ''Anus, ANAL''. Likewise, the Computer Literacy and Internet Technology qualification is known as ''CLaIT'', rather than ''Clitoris, CLIT''. In Canada, the Canadian Alliance, 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 Feces, crap"). 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 (Breast, TIT). Galway RTC became Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), as opposed to Galway Institute of Technology (wikt:git, GIT). The charity sports organization Leukemia & Lymphoma Society#Fundraising, Team in Training is known as "TNT" and not "TIT". Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences, however, is still known as "TITS". George Mason University was planning to name their law school the "Antonin Scalia School of Law" (Asshole, ASSOL) in honor of the late Antonin Scalia, 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 of "wikt:macro-, macro-" and "acronym". Some examples of macronyms are: * XHR stands for "XML HTTP Request", in which "XML" is "Extensible Markup Language", and HTTP stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol" * IBM Power microprocessors, POWER stands for "Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC", in which "RISC" stands for "Reduced Instruction Set Computing" * VHDL stands for "VHSIC Hardware Description Language", in which "VHSIC" stands for "Very High Speed Integrated Circuit" * XSD stands for "XML Schema Definition", in which "XML" stands for "Extensible Markup Language" * AOL Instant Messenger, AIM stands for "AOL Instant Messenger", in which "AOL" originally stood for "America Online" * Houston Automatic Spooling Priority, HASP stood for "Houston Automatic Spooling Priority", but "spooling" itself was an acronym: "simultaneous peripheral operations on-line" * VORTAC stands for "VOR+TACAN", in which "VOR" is "VHF omnidirectional range" (where VHF = Very High Frequency radio) and "TAC" is short for TACAN, which stands for "Tactical Air Navigation" * Global Information Assurance Certification 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'', 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 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 VHDL-VITAL, VITAL, which expands to "VHDL Initiative Towards ASIC 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 the same way that "CHF" can be usefully interchanged with "congestive heart failure"), is a linguistic prescription, prescriptive misapprehension rather than a linguistically accurate description; the true nature of such a term is closer to #All-caps style, 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 gloss (annotation), annotated 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 syntax and cognition without a need to focus on their acronymic origins, terms such as "RARS" and "CHA2DS2–VASc score" are irreducible in natural language; 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 and gene nomenclature, gene nomenclature#Symbol and name, which uses symbols extensively, includes such terms as the name of the NACHT domain, NACHT protein domain, which reflects the symbols of some proteins that contain the domain – NAIP (NLR family apoptosis inhibitor protein), 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 name within a clause clearly parsing, parsable by human readers or listeners.


Recursive acronyms

A special type of macronym, the recursive acronym, has letters whose expansion refers back to the macronym itself. One of the earliest examples appears in ''The Hacker's Dictionary'' as Mung (computer term), MUNG, which stands for "MUNG Until No Good". Some examples of recursive acronyms are: * GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" * LAME stands for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder" * PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" * Wine (software), WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator" * GNU Hurd, HURD 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 syllabary, syllabic or logographic 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" () 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" () 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 (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) 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, 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 Daehakgyo'') is shortened to ''Hongdae'' (, "Hong, the big [school]" or "Hong-U") Other acronyms can refer to the university's main subject, e.g. Korea National University of Education (, ''Hanguk Gyowon Daehakgyo'') is shortened to ''Gyowondae'' (교원대, "Big Ed." or "Ed.-U"). Other schools use a Koreanized version of their English acronym. The KAIST, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (, ''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 makes extensive use of abbreviations, but only some of these are acronyms. Chinese-based words (Sino-Japanese vocabulary) uses similar acronym formation to Chinese, like for . In some cases alternative pronunciations are used, as in Saikyō Line, Saikyō for 埼京, from , rather than Saitō. Non-Chinese foreign borrowings (gairaigo) are instead frequently abbreviated as clipped compounds, rather than acronyms, using several initial sounds. This is visible in katakana transcriptions of foreign words, but is also found with native words (written in hiragana). For example, the ''Pokémon'' media franchise's name originally stood for "pocket monsters" ( [po-ke-tto-mon-su-tā] → ), which is still the long-form of the name in Japanese, and "wāpuro" stands for "word processor" ( [wā-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 ''
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 ...
'' rather than ''GSP'' (for ', 'Secret State Police'); ' rather than ''FAK'' (for ', anti-aircraft warfare, anti-aircraft 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 (haircut), mullet) and the mocking of Adolf Hitler'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); (for , the school). An example that takes only the initial letters from its component words is (''Tzahal'', for , Israel Defense Forces). 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 in every aspect of social life. For example, the ''Golkar'' political party stands for "Partai Golongan Karya", ''Monas'' stands for "Monumen Nasional" (National Monument), the ''Angkot'' public transport stands for "Angkutan Kota" (share taxi#indonesia, city public transportation), ''warnet'' stands for "warung internet" (internet cafe), and many others. Some acronyms are considered formal (or officially adopted), while many more are considered informal, slang or colloquial. The capital's metropolitan area (Jakarta and its surrounding satellite city, satellite regions), ''Jabodetabek'', 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, many acronyms come from the governmental use, particularly in the military and law enforcement services. The Indonesian military (TNI – ''Tentara Nasional Indonesia'') and Indonesian police (POLRI – ''Kepolisian Republik Indonesia'') are infamous for heavy acronyms use. Examples include the ''Kopassus'' (''Komando Pasukan Khusus''; Special Forces Command), ''Kopaska'' (''Komando Pasukan Katak''; Frogmen Command), ''Kodim'' (''Komando Distrik Militer''; Military District Command – one of the Indonesian army's administrative divisions), ''Serka'' (''Sersan Kepala''; Head Sergeant), ''Akmil'' (''Akademi Militer''; Military Academy – in Magelang) and many other terms regarding military ranks, 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 (People's Trust Council,) a government agency in Malaysia. Some acronyms are developed from the Jawi alphabet, Jawi (Malay in Arabic script) spelling of the name and may not reflect its Latin counterpart such as PAS from Malaysian Islamic Party, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (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, 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, Tenaga Nasional Berhad. 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 Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 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 Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, MCMC, or الفا.ڤي.ثيتا for Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Α.Π.Θ.


Russian

Acronyms that use parts of words (not necessarily syllables) are commonplace in Russian as well, e.g. (Gazprom), for (', "gas industry"). There are also initialisms, such as СМИ (''SMI'', for ', "means of mass informing", i.e. ГУЛаг (GULag) combines two initials and three letters of the final word: it stands for (', "Chief Administration of Camps"). Historically, "OTMA" was an acronym sometimes used by the daughters of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and his consort, Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), 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 language, 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

In Vietnamese language, Vietnamese, which has an abundance of compound words, initialisms are very commonly used for both proper and common nouns. Examples include ''wikt:TP.HCM, TP.HCM'' (', Ho Chi Minh City), ''wikt:THPT, THPT'' (', high school), ''wikt:CLB, CLB'' (', club), ''wikt:CSDL, CSDL'' (', database), ''wikt:NXB, NXB'' (', publisher), ''wikt:ÔBACE, ÔBACE'' (', a general form of address), and ''wikt:CTTĐVN, CTTĐVN'' (', Vietnamese Martyrs). Longer examples include ''wikt:CHXHCNVN, CHXHCNVN'' (', Vietnam, Socialist Republic of Vietnam) and ''wikt:MTDTGPMNVN, MTDTGPMNVN'' ('''', Viet Cong). Long initialisms have become widespread in legal contexts in Vietnam, 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
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 ...
, 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) and ''LMCA'' or ''LMCÂ'' for ''Liên minh châu Âu'' (European Union). 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). Initialisms are purely a written convenience, being pronounced the same way as their expansions. As the Vietnamese alphabet#Letter names and pronunciation, 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'' (
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 ...
); ' (), a literal reading of the English initialism for Voice of America; and ''
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 ...
'' (), borrowed directly from the English acronym. As in #Chinese, Chinese, many compound words can be shortened to the first syllable when forming a longer word. For example, the term Viet Cong, Việt Cộng is derived from the first syllables of "Việt Nam" (Vietnam) and "Cộng sản" (communist). This mechanism is limited to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary. Unlike with Chinese, such clipped compounds are considered to be portmanteau words or blend words rather than acronyms or initialisms, because the Vietnamese alphabet still requires each component word to be written as more than one character.


General grammatical considerations


Declension

In languages where nouns are declension, declined, various methods are used. An example is Finnish language, Finnish, where a colon is used to separate inflection from the letters: *An acronym is pronounced as a word: Nato – "into Nato", ''Nasalta'' "from
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 ...
" *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 and Irish language, Irish, where lenition (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'' 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.


See also

* * Acronyms in the Philippines * Acrostic * * List of astronomy acronyms * * * Lists of abbreviations * List of abbreviations in photography * Lists of acronyms * List of fictional espionage organizations * List of Japanese Latin alphabetic abbreviations * *


Explanatory notes


References


External links

* {{Authority control Abbreviations, * Acronyms, Types of words