An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps with no punctuation.
For some, an initialism[1] or alphabetism, connotes this general meaning, and an acronym is a subset with a narrower definition: an initialism pronounced as a word rather than as a sequence of letters. In this sense, NASA /ˈnæsə/ is an acronym but USA /juːɛsˈeɪ/ is not.[2][3]
The broader sense of acronym, ignoring pronunciation, is its original meaning[4] and in common use.[5] Dictionary and style-guide editors dispute whether the term acronym can be legitimately applied to abbreviations which are not pronounced as words, and they do not agree on acronym spacing, casing, and punctuation.
The phrase that the acronym stands for is called its expansion. The meaning of an acronym includes both its expansion and the meaning of its expansion.
- ^ Brinton, Laurel J.; Brinton, Donna M. (2010). The Linguistic Structure of Modern English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 110. ISBN 978-90-272-8824-0. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
- ^ McMahon, Mary (December 30, 2023). "What is the Difference Between an Acronym, Alphabetism, and Initialism?". LanguageHumanities. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
- ^ "Acronyms vs. Initialisms: What's the Difference?". Proofed. April 3, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
OEDwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Acronym". The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Inc. January 22, 2020. Archived from the original on January 22, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
Some people feel strongly that acronym should only be used for terms like NATO, which is pronounced as a single word, and that initialism should be used if the individual letters are all pronounced distinctly, as with FBI. Our research shows that acronym is commonly used to refer to both types of abbreviations.