acronym

Etymology
Borrowed from, from and , equivalent to. Modelled after and, first attested in German in the early 1900s and in English in 1940.

Noun

 * 1)  An abbreviation formed by the initial letters of other words.
 * 2) Generally such abbreviations, including those pronounced as individual letters (initialisms such as "TNT").
 * 3) Exclusively such abbreviations when pronounced as a word (as "laser").
 * 4)  An abbreviation formed by the beginning letters or syllables of other words (as "Benelux").
 * 1)  An abbreviation formed by the beginning letters or syllables of other words (as "Benelux").
 * 1)  An abbreviation formed by the beginning letters or syllables of other words (as "Benelux").

Usage notes
The broader sense of acronym inclusive of initialisms (as ) is sometimes proscribed, but is the term's original and more common meaning. The status of an acronym's pronunciation is not always obvious, as some initialisms have gained interstitial vowels to ease their expression (as for ) and others are pronounced alternatively as words or initialisms (as  or  for ).

Acronyms in all senses may variously be written in all capital letters (as or ) or in lower case (as  or ), according to the degree to which they have come to be seen as words separate from their derivation (that is, depending on how anacronymic they have become). American style guides tend to favor the use of capital spelling for pronounced acronyms of four letters or fewer (as ) whereas British style guides tend to favor standard capitalization of pronounced acronyms as though they were a standard word. Acronyms formed from beginning syllables are sometimes written in camel case (as or ), although this may be precluded by style guides. Mixed capitalization is also sometimes used when acronyms include words usually left uncapitalized in title case but which have been included for pronunciation or clarity (as ); in other cases, the standard acronym capitalizes such minor words as well (as ).

Like all abbreviations, acronyms were formerly usually punctuated with full stops or periods to mark the divisions between the original words (as or ) but this punctuation is increasingly omitted, particularly in the case of acronyms treated as generic words (as  and ) and in acronyms formed from syllables rather than letters. Folk etymologies frequently imagine acronymic expansions for such common words as, , and , but the earliest English acronym listed by the OED is a form of in 1793, and their use did not become widespread (throughout the language) until the world wars of the 20th century.

Translations

 * Arabic: اِخْتِصَار
 * Bengali: আদ্যক্ষরা
 * Bulgarian: акроним
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 首字母縮略詞
 * Danish:
 * Esperanto: akronimo
 * Estonian:
 * Finnish: kirjainlyhenne
 * French:
 * Greek:
 * Icelandic: upphafsstafaheiti
 * Irish: acrainm
 * Italian:
 * Maori: kupu rāpoto
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Nynorsk: akronym
 * Polish:, ,
 * Portuguese:
 * Scottish Gaelic: acranaim, geàrr-ainm
 * Sicilian:
 * Spanish:
 * Tagalog: akronim
 * Thai: รัสพจน์


 * Arabic: اِخْتِصَار
 * Bulgarian: акроним
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:, 縮略詞,
 * Czech:
 * Danish:
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto: akronimo
 * Finnish: ,
 * French:
 * Galician:
 * German:
 * Greek: ,
 * Hebrew:
 * Hungarian:,  ,
 * Interlingua: acronymo, initiales
 * Irish: acrainm
 * Italian:
 * Japanese:, アクロニム,
 * Korean:
 * Maori: kupu rāpoto, pūtaukī
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Nynorsk: akronym
 * Occitan:
 * Polish:, ,
 * Portuguese: acrograma
 * Brazilian:
 * European:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian: ,
 * Scottish Gaelic: acranaim, geàrr-ainm
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: акроним
 * Roman:
 * Sicilian:
 * Slovene:
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Turkish:

Verb

 * 1) To form into an acronym.