I usually keep mum about this sort of thing, because I’ve
found most people don’t WANT to be told when they’re laboring under a
grammatical misconception. But I found this fascinating, and I thought you
might, too. If I’m wrong, enjoy the pretty quilt block and move on. The word “abbreviation”
applies to any word or phrase that’s been shortened or contracted, such as Dr. for
Doctor, and US for United States. Acronyms and initialisms are two ways that
phrases might be abbreviated. When an abbreviation is pronounced as if it was a
word, it’s called an acronym. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), ASAP (as
soon as possible), radar (radio detecting and ranging) and scuba (self-contained
underwater breathing apparatus) are all acronyms. If the individual letters of
an abbreviation are pronounced, it’s an initialism. FBI, CIA, HTML and DVD are
all initialisms, not acronyms, because we say them eff-bee-aye, see-aye-ay, aitch-tee-em-el
and dee-vee-dee.
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