Tuesday
Dec012009
acronym v. initialism
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Acronym
An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters (or from parts of the words) in a phrase. Acronyms are pronounced as words, not as individual letters, and may be UPPERCASE or lowercase.
Examples:
- scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- radar: radio detection and ranging
- amphetamine: alpha-methylphenethylamine
Initialism
An initialism is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters (or from other letters) of the words in a phrase. Initialisms are pronounced letter by letter, are usually UPPERCASE, and may contain periods.
Examples:
- FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
- DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid
- B.C.: Before Christ
- XML: Extensible Markup Language
- a.m.: ante meridiem
The term ‘acronym’ is sometimes used in the broader sense of any abbreviation constructed from initial letters. In this context, an initialism is a type of acronym.