Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Initialisms
In order to prevent further confusion and embarrassment in meetings, this page provides definitions and examples of abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms. After reading this, there is no excuse for using the wrong term.
(Here are some more.)
Abbreviation
(ə-brēˌvē-āˈshən) - a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole
Examples:
Bonus Material: There is a special HTML tag for abbreviations. It's <abbr>, and should include a title attribute which spells-out the abbreviation. And since initialisms and acronyms are just special cases of abbreviations, this tag should be used for those as well.
Here is an example:
<abbr title="National Aeronautics and Space Administration">NASA</abbr>
Acronym
(ăkˈrə-nĭm) - an abbreviation that is pronounced as a word\ - Similar, see Backronym, below.
Examples:
ASAP (As Soon As Possible) - sometimes used as an initialism
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
Radar (RAdio Detecting and Ranging)
Scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus)
Sonar (SOund Navigation And Ranging)
WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)
Initialism
(ĭ-nĭshˈə-lĭzˌəm) - an abbreviation that is pronounced one letter at a time
Examples:
ASAP (As Soon As Possible) - sometimes used as an acronym
BFF (Best Friends Forever)
CD (Compact Disc)
DVD (Digital Video Disc)
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
IBM (International Business Machines)
VHS (Video Home System [nobody ever knew this!])
Many people would simply call these abbreviations, which is fine.
Some people would call them acronyms, which is not fine.
Other
(ŭþˈər) - well, it's not an abbreviation, and it's not a word, but it's pronounced as if it was a word.
Examples:
BLOG - You can pronounce this as a word, but it's not an abbreviation, either. It's a truncation of “weblog.” A blog is essentially a website where the owner publishes content to the web. They became popular because they don't require any technical skills. Blogs often allow readers to comment, which are also then published on the site.
EMail - Concatenation of “electronic” and“mail.” Used to be that it was written e-mail but I guess Websters decided to change that.
QWERTY - Pronounced as a word but it's not an abbreviation for anything, it just refers to the standard keyboard layout that people have been using since the phrase “carriage return” meant something.
VLOG - Can't easily pronounce this, but it's shorthand for “video blog” or “video log.” Basically a blog but the medium is video.
Backronym
(băkˈrə-nĭm) - a constructed phrase that purports to be the source of an acronym.
Examples:
SPAM - Something Posing As Meat
MOAB - Mother of All Bombs (in response to Saddam Hussein's “mother of all battles,” but really stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb)