Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Acronym |
AcronymNoun1. A word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Computing | Acronym |
Language | A pronounceable abbreviation of a compound, name or phrase used as one word, often composed of the initial letters or syllables of the items abbreviated. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An acronym (Greek ακρον, akron, "tip" + ονυμα, onyma, "name") is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of words. Depending on how many of the constituent words begin with vowels and the phonotactics of the language an acronym exists in, acronyms can be pronounced as a word, as a series of the names of the letters, or some combination of the two. Sometimes acronyms have idiosyncratic pronunciations, like NAACP, which is pronounced "N double A C P".
Acronyms often occur in jargon or as names of organizations because they often serve as abbreviations of long terms that are frequently referenced, so a shortened form is desirable. Cynics have quipped that acronyms are used to obfuscate.
Traditionally, abbreviations use a period to mark the part that was deleted. In the case of acronyms, each letter is its own abbreviation, and gets its own period. However, this usage is becoming less common as the presence of all capital letters is sufficient to indicate the word is an abbreviation; however, some influential usage guides insist on the many-periods treatment, such as the one used by the New York Times. Some acronyms undergo assimilation into ordinary words: often they are written in lower case, and eventually it is widely forgotten that the word was derived from the initials of others: scuba\' and snafu, for instance. The term anacronym' has been coined as a combination of the words "anachronism" and "acronym" to describe acronyms whose original meaning is forgotten.
There is debate over whether the word acronym can be applied to any set of initials. Some people insist an acronym is only a set of initials which is pronounceable as a word. Some dictionary definitions can be interpreted to support this view. Under this view, sets of initials like "BBC" and "IBM" are initialisms and not acronyms. On the other hand, under the restrictive definition of 'acronym' there is no English word to describe all strings of initials that are used in place of the full words. For many people, the word acronym is used for all such sets of initials regardless of whether they are pronounced as a word or as the names of the letters in sequence.
Sometimes non-initial letters, and the initials of short function words (such as "and", "or", "of", or "to") are included in the acronym to make it pronounceable, in contradiction to the normal rule for abbreviation. Additionally, abbreviations like "Interpol" and "Gestapo" that consist mostly of non-initial letters of constituent words are often called acronyms, although some people insist they are properly called portmanteaus.
The plurals of acronyms (where relevant--there are many lasers, but only one NATO) are formed in the same way as the plural of other English words: that is, by simply appending an s. Thus, "CDs", not "CD's".
Examples of acronyms
See also
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acronym."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
ACRONYM | English | Abreviation by CROping Names that Yield Meaning | Computer - (slang) |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Crosswords: Acronym |
| English words defined with "acronym": Aqua-Lung ♦ elves ♦ scuba, snafu. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "acronym": ADC, ALARA, ASHRAE ♦ backronym, Blue Screen of Death, BOF, BOFH, BUCEN ♦ CAMELS, CCS, Codasyl, CSP, CTL ♦ DAU ♦ EDS/SACS/ROE ♦ geodimeter, glassfet ♦ HP-SUX ♦ instruction mnemonic, intelligent key, International Organization for Standardization, Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics ♦ Jughead ♦ LASIK, LIDAR, LISA, Lod Score, LYaPAS ♦ Matrix Math eXtensions, MOBSSL-UAF ♦ OAPEC, Osteonectin ♦ Plain Old Telephone Service, PRK ♦ radiac, recursive acronym ♦ SSMA ♦ Telecommunications Device for the Deaf, Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program, three-letter acronym, TLA ♦ UTSL ♦ WASDE, WORC, WORC petition ♦ YABA, YAG, YIG. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I got an acronym for myself. (Kiss of Death; writing credit: Eleazar Lipsky; Ben Hecht) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The acronym "GMP" (Good Manufacturing Practice) is used internationally to describe a set of principles and procedures which, when followed by manufacturers of therapeutic goods, helps ensure that the products manufactured will have the required quality. (references) | |
Economic History | Portugal | A second incentive scheme for small projects (less than 150,000 Euros) goes under the acronym SIPIE. (references) |
Ecuador | The National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television (known by its Spanish acronym CONARTEL) regulates broadcasters. (references) | |
Angola | Angola's military is called the FAA, the Portuguese acronym for Angolan Armed Forces, headed by a Chief of Staff who reports to the Minister of Defense. (references) | |
Human Rights | Spain | Under a 1999 law, the Government has compensated directly victims of terrorism and their families, including victims of the Antiterrorist Liberation Groups (government-sponsored death squads known by their acronym, GAL) in the 1980's. (references) |
Political Economy | Panama | Other business-oriented parties include MOLIRENA (Spanish-language acronym for the National Liberal Republican Movement) and Cambio Democratico (Democratic Change). (references) |
Ecuador | Given that kidnappings of this nature occur, the lack of military control has engendered concern for the security of those Americans involved in the incipient construction of the OCP (the Ecuadorian acronym for the Trans-Andean Pipeline), to begin in August. (references) | |
Trade | Mexico | These can be recognized by the (-SCFI-) acronym in the NOM title. (references) |
Netherlands | Value-added tax, most frequently called by its acronym VAT, is charged on the sale of goods and services within the country. (references) | |
Ireland | The valued-added tax, most frequently called by its acronym VAT, is charged on the sale of goods and services within the country. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | But if the ELF acronym is mostly unfamiliar on the East Coast, it has long been a reference point in the Pacific Northwest for illegal and extreme environmental activism that law enforcement officials call eco-terrorism. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Acronym" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Acronym" is used about 84 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 84 | 36,109 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "acronym": recursive acronym. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "acronym": acronym-slinging, acronym-speak, acronym-to-acronym. | |
Ending with "acronym": acronym-to-acronym. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
acronym | 1,213 |
acronym finder | 204 |
military acronym | 101 |
computer acronym | 74 |
acronym dictionary | 66 |
medical acronym | 66 |
army acronym | 48 |
internet acronym | 41 |
acronym navy | 28 |
acronym chat | 27 |
abbreviation and acronym | 21 |
acronym game | 20 |
email acronym | 20 |
acronym generator | 19 |
acronym government | 18 |
acronym air force | 17 |
acronym business | 17 |
acronym list | 16 |
acronym software | 15 |
acronym funny | 14 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "acronym"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | akroniem. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | akronim. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | اللفظة الأوائلية, أوائل حروف الكلمات. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | акроним. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 首字母缩略词. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | akronym. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | akronym. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | acroniem. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | akronimo, siglo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | پیشوندبمعنی بالای ،انتهای . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | akronyymi, kirjainsana. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | acronyme, sigle, mot-sigle, mot en forme de sigle. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Akronym, Abkürzungi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ακρώνυμο. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ראשי תבות (abbreviation, initials). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | betűszó. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Icelandic | upphafsstafaheiti. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | akronim. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | acronimo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 字語 , 略語 (abbreviation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | りゃく" (abbreviation), とうじ". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 약어. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | acronymay acrônimo. (various references) акроним. (various references) akronim. (various references) sigla (initials), acrónimo. (various references) akronym. (various references) baş harflerden oluşan sözcük. (various references) акронім. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "acronym": acronymic, acronymically, acronyms. (additional references) | |
| |
"Acronym" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: accronym, achronym, ackronym, aconym, acorny, acorynm, acranym, acrnym, acroncym, acronem, acronim, acronin, acronism, acronmym, acronum, acronyem, acronyme, acronymed, acronymn, acronyn, acronynm, acronysm, acronyx, acroym, acroymn, acroynm, acroynom, acroynym, acrynom, acrynym, akronim, akronym, aronym, ascronym, carbonium, eronym. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "acronym" (pronounced a"krunum) |
| 4 | -u n u m | aluminium, aluminum, arcanum, duodenum, lanthanum, laudanum, organum, tympanum. |
| 3 | -n u m | denim, granum, interregnum, magnum, molybdenum, phenom, platinum, plenum, venom. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-m-n-o-r-y" | |
-1 letter: crayon, macron. | |
-2 letters: acorn, anomy, carny, carom, corny, crony, cyano, cymar, macon, macro, manor, mayor, moray, narco, racon, rayon, roman. | |
-3 letters: arco, army, carn, coma, cony, corm, corn, cory, cram, cyan, cyma, mano, many, marc, mayo, moan, mony, mora, morn, myna, narc, nary, noma, norm, orca, racy, roam, roan, yarn. | |
-4 letters: any, arc, arm, cam, can, car, cay, con, cor, coy, cry, mac, man, mar, may, moa, moc, mon, mor, nam, nay, nom, nor, oar, oca, ora, orc, ram, ran, ray, roc, rom, rya, yam, yar, yom, yon. | |
-5 letters: am, an, ar, ay, ma, mo, my, na, no, om, on, or, oy, ya, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-m-n-o-r-y" | |
+1 letter: acrimony, acronyms, dormancy, monarchy, mordancy, nomarchy, normalcy. | |
+2 letters: acronymic, monocracy, pyromancy. | |
+3 letters: chiromancy, commandery, commentary, countryman, craniotomy, hydromancy, importancy, matronymic, necromancy, patronymic, pyromaniac. | |
+4 letters: actinometry, aerodynamic, clergywoman, combinatory, comminatory, conformably, craniometry, documentary, manufactory, matronymics, monocrystal, monocularly, moronically, oneiromancy, paramountcy, patronymics, pyromancies, pyromaniacs, rhabdomancy, uncustomary. | |
+5 letters: actinomorphy, aerodynamics, asynchronism, ceremonially, chlorenchyma, commendatory, compensatory, condemnatory, confirmatory, consummatory, contemporary, countrywoman, cytomembrane, dynamometric, gyromagnetic, harmonically, hydrodynamic, hydromancies, incomparably, intercompany, intracompany, laryngectomy, microanalyst, microanatomy, microtonally, monocrystals, pancreozymin, predominancy, pyromaniacal, romantically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 63 72 6F 6E 79 6D |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- -.-. .-. --- -. -.--. -- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01100011 01110010 01101111 01101110 01111001 01101101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A c r o n y m |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0063 0072 006F 006E 0079 006D |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)35698481809179 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Quotations: Spoken 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Abbreviations 12. Acronyms | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
