Acronymis often used to describe any assembling of first letters of words in a phrase : NASAforNational Aeronautics and Space Administration , CEOforchief executive police officer , and so on . But not all acronym are really acronyms : Some are just initialisms . Here ’s how to secern the two apart — and how abbreviations fit into the pic .
Acronym vs. Initialism
Before we get donnish , though , let ’s be clear-cut : So many the great unwashed consideracronymandinitialismto be direct synonyms that dictionaries dolist them as such , and it ’s not “ incorrect ” to expend them interchangeably . But if you want to differentiate between the categories , it ’s not hard to learn the distinction .
Basically , anacronymis any word formed by taking the first letter ( or first parts of syllable ) of each word in a phrase , title , or chemical group of word — and then pronouncing that new word as a word . FOMO , forfear of miss out , is “ FOH - moh . ”BAFTA , forBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts , is “ BAFF - tuh . ”
Forall the debatesurrounding whetherGIF(graphics reciprocation formatting ) should be say with a soft or hard “ g ” speech sound , everybody can at least agree that it should be pronounced as a single - syllable word . Nobody tell “ G - I - F. ” If we did , GIFwouldn’t be an acronym — it would be an initialism .
Initialisms are term made by consider each first varsity letter in a phrase and then pronouncingeach of those letters . Often , that ’s because it ’s not phonetically possible to articulate a mathematical group of letter as a word — likeTBDforto be determinedorCNNforCable News internet . But other time , we all seemingly resolve it just sounds well or more appropriate to say the letter : CEOis “ C - east - type O , ” not “ SEE - oh , ” andUSAis “ U - S - A , ” not “ OOH - sah . ”
To make matters more complicated , sure terms are technically used as acronymsandinitialisms . TakeLOL . If you pronounce each letter individually , it ’s an initialism . But people sometimes say it as a word—“LAWL ” or “ LOHL”—in which case it ’s an acronym . The same survive forASAP : “ A - S - A - phosphorus ” is an initialism , while “ AY - sap ” is an acronym .
And some acronyms have become so mutual that they ’re widely written in lowercase , and you might not even agnize they wereacronyms to commence with . Laser , for example , stands forlight amplification by induce expelling of radiation , andsnafustarted out asmilitary slangforsituation normal : all make love up .
Acronym vs. Abbreviation
Abbreviationis a haul - all terminus for any shortening of a Scripture or phrase . This means that all acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations , but not all abbreviations are acronyms or initialisms .
Abbreviations let in things like contraction ( e.g.could’veforcould have , won’tforwill not ) andnicknames(BethforElizabeth , AlexforAlexander , etc . ) . It also includes dustup that have literally just been abbreviate . You might writemgmtinstead ofmanagement , orassnforassociation . Caliis an abbreviation forCalifornia , andmath(ormaths , if you ’re British ) formathematics . abbreviation are all shortcuts , but there are n’t any overarching rules to create or judge them like there are with acronym and initialisms .
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