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What is the difference between these initialisms vs acronyms vs abbreviations?
As I understand from SO:
initialisms are like BOA,USA(i.e. letter by letter).
acronyms are like NASA, AIDS(i.e. words).
than what is abbreviations?
Premraj
Posted 2015-05-19T08:33:32.823
Reputation: 413
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An abbreviation shortens one word or a short sequence of words to one or a few letters. A few random examples:
As you can see, in the wider definition abbreviations encompasses contractions ("dropping letters from the middle of a word", acronyms and initialisms (using the first letter(s) of a multi-word phrase) and abbreviations in the stricter sense, which are defined as "dropping letters from the end of a word".
Stephie
Posted 2015-05-19T08:33:32.823
Reputation: 14 048
So what's the difference between acronyms and initialisms? – Kreiri – 2015-05-19T13:03:04.480
@Kreiri: Initialisms use the first letters and pronounce them letter-by-letter: Chief Executive Officer shortens to CEO and reads "ce-e-oh". Acronyms use sometimes more than one letter of each word and form new "words", see "sonar" in the answer above. Also note that those two are not mutually exclusive: The ICE train is in the US spoken like the frozen water but originally stands for "Inter City Express". – Stephie – 2015-05-19T15:27:59.603
The rule for an an initialism becoming an acronym is one of convenience and familiarity. Ice is a familiar word, and ICE slips easily into acronym. Likewise, long initialisms are extremely rare, and almost invariably are rejected in favor of acronyms. The cutoff point seems to be about 3 letters. While the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is pretty well fixed, the President of the United States is (when abbreviated for convenience) POTUS, pronounced "poe - tuss". – WhatRoughBeast – 2015-07-18T16:36:24.343
My understanding has always been that an acronym must be pronouncable, whereas an initialise is pronounced letter by letter. – Joseph Rogers – 2015-11-15T21:53:57.470
4In ordinary speech, most people don't distinguish between "initialism" and "acronym". Most people say "acronym" for both, and most people have never even heard the word "initialism". The distinction is rather fussy, mainly of interest to grammarians. – Ben Kovitz – 2015-05-19T19:01:54.977
Related question on ELU: english.stackexchange.com/questions/3755/difference-between-an-acronym-and-abbreviation. – pyobum – 2015-12-15T18:15:24.287