Acronym and initialism

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for.

Related Topics:
Abbreviation - NATO - XHTML

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Of the two words, acronym is the much more frequently used and known, and many dictionaries, speakers and writers refer to all abbreviations formed from initial letters as acronyms. However, some still differentiate between acronyms and initialisms: an acronym was originally a pronounceable word formed from the initial letter or letters of the constituent words, such as NATO /ne?to?/ or RADAR /re?d??/, from RAdio Detection And Ranging, while an initialism referred to an abbreviation pronounced as the names of the individual letters, such as TLA /ti.?l.e?/. The distinction is quickly becoming obsolete: although conservative commentators continue to decry the loss of the distinction in style guides and elsewhere, the word acronym is used nearly universally for both meanings.

Related Topics:
NATO - RADAR - TLA

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