acronym
[ak-ruh-nim]
- a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words and pronounced as a separate word, as Wac from Women's Army Corps, OPEC from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or loran from long-range navigation.
- a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately; an initialism.
- an acrostic.
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- to make an acronym of: The committee's name has been acronymed MIKE.
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Origin of acronym
Grammar note
See abbreviation.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for acronyms
Contemporary Examples
Elections make sense; central-bank announcements replete with jargon, arcane policies, and acronyms do not stir souls.
The Liberian civil conflict was a bewildering alphabet soup of acronyms, each a rebel group led by a warlord.
The men had all sorts of lingo and acronyms that they used to review the services of the women they procured erotic services from.
One of the acronyms spawned by the Internet is IANAL, which stands for “I am not a lawyer.”
Historical Examples
It is not easy to find a path in the jungle of acronyms, which sprouted in the wake of the formation of the IMF.
After the RainSam Vaknin
Hidden behind a jungle of acronyms, an unprecedented system of international finance evolves relentlessly.
After the RainSam Vaknin
The use of abbreviations, acronyms, and foreign terms has been held to a minimum.
Area Handbook for BulgariaEugene K. Keefe, Violeta D. Baluyut, William Giloane, Anne K. Long, James M. Moore, and Neda A. Walpole
acronym
- a pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words; for example, UNESCO for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
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Word Origin
C20: from acro- + -onym
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for acronyms
acronym
n.
word formed from the first letters of a series of words, 1943, American English coinage from acro- + -onym "name" (abstracted from homonym; see name (n.)). But for cabalistic esoterica and acrostic poetry, the practice was practically non-existent before 20c.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
acronym
[(ak-ruh-nim)]
Note
Acronyms are often less clumsy than the complete expressions they represent and are easier to write and remember.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.