Home > Acronym and initialism
3 Nomenclature
Initialism originally referred to abbreviations formed from initials, without reference to pronunciation, but during the middle portion of the twentieth century, when acronyms and initialisms saw more use than ever before, the word acronym was coined for abbreviations which are pronounced as a word, like " NATO" or " AIDS." The term initialism is now typically taken to refer to abbreviations which are pronounced by sounding out the name of each constituent letter (e.g. HTML). Some have extended the term acronym in meaning to describe all abbreviations made from initial letters, regardless of pronunciation.
There is no agreement on what category to place abbreviations in which contain single letters but can otherwise be pronounced as a word, such as JPEG (Jay-Peg). These abbreviations are sometimes referred to as acronym-initialism hybrids, although they are by some grouped under the broad meaning of acronym.
4 Examples
- pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters:
- SAM: Surface-to-Air Missile
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
- Anzac: Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
- laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
- scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters:
- Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization
- Gestapo: Geheime Staatspolizei ("secret state police")
- radar: radio detection and ranging
- CONMEBOL: Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (South American Football Confederation)
- pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word:
- C-SPAN: (SEA-span) Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network
- OPEC: (OH-pec) Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
- JPEG: (JAY-peg) Joint Photographic Experts Group
- IUPAC: (AYE-YOU-pac) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- UEFA: (You-EE-fa or You-AY-fa) Union of European Football Associations
- pronounced only as the names of letters
- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
- CCITT: Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique
- DMV: Department of Motor Vehicles
- DNA: DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
- DNS: Domain Name System
- EDTA: Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid
- ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
- IBM: International Business Machines
- MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- AAA: (triple-AY) American Automobile Association
- IEE: (AYE-double-EE or AYE-EE-EE) Institution of Electrical Engineers
- IEEE: (AYE-triple-EE) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- NAACP: (EN-double-AY-SEE-PEA) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- NCAA: (EN-SEE-double-AY) National Collegiate Athletic Association
- pronounced as the names of letters, with a number, and standing for one usually long word:
- i18n: Internationalization
- l10n: Localization
