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.
Related formsac·ro·nym·ic, a·cron·y·mous[uh-kron-uh-muh s]/əˈkrɒn ə məs/, adjectiveac·ro·nym·i·cal·ly, adverbCan be confusedabbreviationacronyminitialism
Eugene K. Keefe, Violeta D. Baluyut, William Giloane, Anne K. Long, James M. Moore, and Neda A. Walpole
British Dictionary definitions for acronyms
acronym
noun
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
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.
A word formed by combining the beginning letters of a name or phrase, as in WASP for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or by combining the initial syllables of a series of words, as in radar, which stands for radio detecting and ranging.
Note
Acronyms are often less clumsy than the complete expressions they represent and are easier to write and remember.
