acronym

Pluralacronyms

Formsacronyms, acronyming, acronymed

1. 1
   any initialsnouncountable

   Any abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words, whether it is said as a word or letter by letter, as with TNT.

   The memo was so crowded with acronyms such as HR, ROI, and KPI that new hires kept a glossary.

   On the form, spell out each acronym, such as CPR or DMV, the first time it appears.

   Similarabbreviation, initialism

   Note

   The loose use is as old as the word in English. In 1940, its first year on record, the English translation of Feuchtwanger's Paris Gazette applies it to "Pee-gee-enn", initials read out letter by letter. German had coined Akronym in the early 1900s from Greek parts meaning "peak" and "name", on the pattern of homonym and synonym.

2. 2
   said as wordnouncountable

   In the strict use, only an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words that is pronounced as a word, such as laser or NATO.

   Organizers came up with the acronym SPARK, which stands for the program's five goals.

   Strictly speaking, FBI is an initialism, while NATO and radar are acronyms.

   Note

   Some style guides and linguists hold to this narrow use and call letter-by-letter forms initialisms instead. Acronyms of the pronounceable kind are sometimes coined to spell a word that already exists, as with TACO, the traders' 2025 nickname for "Trump always chickens out". Because the broader meaning is common in everyday writing, initialism is the safer word when the difference matters.

3. 3
   first syllablesnouncountable

   An abbreviation made from the opening letters or syllables of other words, such as Benelux.

   The startup's name is an acronym that joins the first syllables of its founders' surnames.

   Benelux and similar acronyms are built from syllables rather than single letters.

   Similarabbreviation

   Note

   Here syllables count, not just single letters: Nabisco is pieced together from National Biscuit Company. Simeon Potter's Our Language (1950) calls such forms "acronyms or telescoped names" and writes nabisco without a capital. Shortenings of this kind read as ordinary words, so they are often written with one capital or none.

4. 4
   shorten namesverbtransitive

   To shorten a name or phrase by forming it into an acronym.

   Government agencies seem to acronym every program they launch.

   The task force's unwieldy title was soon acronymed to TRUST.

   Similarabbreviate, shorten

   Note

   The verb's inflected forms normally keep a single m: acronymed, acronyming. Doubled spellings such as acronymmed and acronymming do turn up, but they are rare, so the single-m forms are the safe choice in edited writing.

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