Table of types of acronym and initialism, with examples.
The Oxford English Dictionary uses "initialism" or "acronym" as appropriate in its etymologies, except that B.V.D. is "(biːviːˈdiː) [Acronym f. the initial letters of the name of its manufacturers, Bradley, Voorhees & Day: the widely-held belief that B.V.D. stood for ‘babies' ventilated diapers’ is mistaken.] "
Source data from mainspace article edit
- pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or context:
- IRA: ([ˈaɪrə] or [aɪ.ɑr.eɪ])
- When used for Irish Republican Army, always pronounced as letters
- When used for Individual Retirement Account, can be pronounced as letters or as a word
- ((LOL)) LaughOutLoud
- FAQ: ([fæk] or [ɛf.eɪ.kju]) frequently asked questions
- SAT: ([sæt] or [ɛs.eɪ.ti]) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptitude) Test(s)
- SQL: ([sikwəɫ] or [ɛs.kɪu.ɛl]) Structured Query Language
- IRA: ([ˈaɪrə] or [aɪ.ɑr.eɪ])
- pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word:
- pronounced only as the names of letters
- pronounced as the names of letters that also sound like words
- YRUU: ([waɪ.ɑr.ju.ju]) Young Religious Unitarian Universalists
- pronounced as the names of letters to distinguish it from the word the abbreviation forms
- OIL: Oil India Limited, not a recursive acronym
- pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- shortcut incorporated into name
- recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation itself is the expansion of one initial (particularly enjoyed by the open-source community)
- pseudo-acronyms are used because, when pronounced as intended, they resemble the sounds of other words:
- multidimentional acronyms:
- GTK+: GIMP Tool Kit, i.e. GNU Image Manipulation Program Tool Kit, i.e., GNU's Not Unix Image Manipulation Program Tool Kit
Trivia edit
- XSS vs CSRF "Cross" as X or C (though XSRF also found)
- F1 vs FOCA "One" as 1 or O
- CXO = Chief X Officer
Table edit
| e.g.[1] | desc[2] | W[3] | M[4] | S[5] | LS[6] | E[7] | M[8] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| deejay, emcee, okay, Esso, Seabee | respelled initialism | ||||||
| jeep, Beeb, Veep | clipped initialism | ||||||
| Énarque, Cégétiste, Defeño, cubewano | respelled as morpheme | ||||||
| FNMA, FTSE, SCSI, WR[e]NS | acronym with inserted vowels | ||||||
| FLWOR | acronym with reordered letters "flower" | ||||||
| MUSL | "MUlti-State Lottery association" → [2-1 1 0] | ||||||
| ARISF | "Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations" where IOC not coded. | ||||||
| laser | "by" uncoded; origin less known, lowercase | ||||||
| NATO | sound of "A" different from component | ||||||
| numbers as initials | |||||||
| scuba | hyphenation in "self-contained" | ||||||
| Amphetamine | et should be eth; amine coded entire | ||||||
| paraben | syllables of single word | ||||||
| Gestapo Benelux | not camel case; syllabic | ||||||
| Interpol | syllabic; not all words coded | ||||||
| radar | almost initial-only; "and" included | ||||||
| BMX,XA,X/F, XPM, XSS | X=trans/cross: rebus | ||||||
| SXSW | X="by" (multiplication sign rebus) | ||||||
| BMO, MPEG, PDFORRA, RGDATA | part initialism, part acronym | ||||||
| CSRF | part initialism, part acronym-with-inserted-vowels | ||||||
| SFX | part initialism, part phonetic | ||||||
| BBQ | part initialism, part phonetic; rebus influences new spelling; letter per syllable | ||||||
| IRA | initialism in English, acronym in French | ||||||
| RAF | formally initialism, affectionately acronym | ||||||
| AWOL | originally initialism, became acronym | ||||||
| AK PARTİ | rare 2-letter acronym | ||||||
| asap, URL | usually initialism, occasionally acronym | ||||||
| SQL | sometimes acronym-w-inserted-vowels, sometimes initialism | ||||||
| XML | X often used for eX- words in initialisms, not acronyms | ||||||
| quango | retains the u for pronunciation | ||||||
| NASDAQ | final Q often allowed | ||||||
| Qantas, HIQA | rare Q = [kw] where not followed by u (also A for "and" in QANTAS) | ||||||
| AT&T, T&GWU | ampersand for And | ||||||
| XANES | X genuine initial (X-ray) | ||||||
| OS X, SSPX | X as roman numeral | ||||||
| TNT | morphemes not words | ||||||
| agitprop | 2-syllable+1-syllable | ||||||
| SoHo | Camelcase | ||||||
| BCBG | becebege | ||||||
| PJs | pajamas: per syllable, non-morphemic | ||||||
| TB | I guess originally Tubercle bacillus, now mainly tuberculosis even though the B is non-morphemic; bacillus now called Mycobacterium tuberculosis abbreviated MTB | ||||||
| ID, [on the] QT/q.t. | noun: identification or identification document? verb: identify? ; q[uie]t!? | ||||||
| EPO, OB/GYN | initialism for arbitrary subset of letters of word. | ||||||
c'mon, guys!
| |||||||
| Scarp | Small Companies Administration Process -- is the r from administRation or pRocess? | ||||||
| BSc, UVA | alphabetism as w1l1-w2l1-w2l2 | ||||||
| e.g | macaronic backronym
| ||||||
| Arcelor Conmebol | start-mid-end blend | ||||||
| IN2P3 | "Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules" — I guess INPNPP →1 INNPPP →2 IN2P3, wherein the →1 is dodgy. | ||||||
| P3P | Note not PPPP or P4 but rather P3P. Why not P2P2? | ||||||
| AJAX | asynchronous JavaScript and XML -- "and" included; XML double acronym | ||||||
| A2/AD | anti-access/area-denial [weapon] | ||||||
| C4ISR | command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance | ||||||
| Tri-Ess ("Society for the Second Self", 3S) | respelled — is that a pun? |