Formatting Tip & Grammar: Acronyms & Initialisms

Revised as of
25 Jan 2023

And you thought acronyms were the last word . . .! Yeah, I didn’t know about initialisms either. Obviously, there are a lot of people out there with too much time on their hands and way too OCD! Worse than me even! By the way, acronyms and initialisms are considered a type of abbreviation.

It is fun to learn new things, and no, you don’t really have to worry if your “acronym” is really an initialism. Both are treated the same way. The only important rule is in the rule below.

The Grammar Explanation is mostly an FYI in case someone throws some weird term like recursive backronym at you . . .

Formatting Tips and Grammar Explanations sometimes . . .

. . . cross as it does here in this post on “Acronyms & Initialisms”. Formatting Tips — capitalizing or italicizing, in quotes or not, what should be spelled out and what can be abbreviated, proper styling for the Latin names of plants, the proper formatting and usage of titles and more — can be affected by the grammatical rules and principles on structure that determine where and how words are placed in phrases or sentences.

Sometimes I run across an example that helps explain better or another “also known as”. Heck, there’s always a better way to explain it, so if it makes quicker and/or better sense, I would appreciate suggestions and comments from anyone on an area of grammar with which you struggle or on which you can contribute more understanding.

If you found this combination Formatting Tips and Grammar Explanations post on “Acronyms & Initialisms” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

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Acronyms & Initialisms
Formatting, Grammar
Definition: An abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. Usually these components are the initial letters or parts of words or names of a name, title, organization, etc. Full-Name Rule: If you intend to abbreviate a phrase or the name of an organization, company, or government entity, use the full name the first time you use it in each chapter and follow it with the abbreviation in parentheses. After that, you can use the acronym without any further explanation in that chapter. POST CONTENTS: Two Types: Acronym Initialism Capitalizing Acronyms or Initialisms Style Exceptions to the Full-Name Rule Use of an Indefinite Article Acronym as Grammar Apronym Backronym Anacronym Pure Backronym Recursive Backronym Replacement Backronym Mnemonic Backronym Contrived Acronym Euphonious Acronym Hybrid Acronym Immigrant Acronym Internet Slang Macronym Obsolete Acronym RAS Syndrome Recursive Acronym Mutually Recursive Acronym Syllable Acronym Technology Acronym Three-Letter Acronym
Acronym		Initialism
Definition: Pronounceable as a word.		Definition: Pronounced by its initials. A.k.a. alphabetism, initial acronym, letter acronym
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration radar Radio Detection And Ranging FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement AJAX Asynchronous Javascript and XML LASER Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation OSHA Occupational Health and Safety Act IKEA Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd MoMA Museum of Modern Art		EFT Electronic Funds Transfer DoD Department of Defense NHL National Hockey League WWW World Wide Web P&L profit & loss ROFL Rolling on Floor Laughing BYO Bring Your Own APA American Psychological Association USMC US Marine Corps
Capitalizing Acronyms or Initialisms
ALL CAPS	Rule: Acronyms and initialisms are usually in all-caps.
Return to top or post contents	Exceptions abound, of course; always check the individual company or dictionary being used to determine proper usage for an acronym about which you’re not sure. The AP Style Guide rule is a good general guide, although it is not absolute: Use all caps IF each letter of a name is pronounced as a separate letter.
	Acronym Exceptions Initialisms per AP AAA AJAX NATO NORAD BYOB CVS DHCP FTP HP HTTP IBM ID IQ KFC MTV PDA RSS SDK WWW
lowercase	The AP Style Guide rule is a good general guide, although it is not absolute: Some companies use only an initial cap.
Return to top or post contents	Acronym Initialisms laser MoMA Ikea Alcoa Amoco Cigna FedEx Geico Kraft Comsat B&B Benelux DoD P&L MoD
	Style Exceptions to the Full-Name Rule
	Rule: Some acronyms and initialisms are so well-known that spelling them out is not necessary. Verify other acronyms and initialisms by checking a reputable dictionary to see if they are listed as words.
	APA: Abbreviations that are widely known: Institutions: FBI, CIA, AT&T, UConn, MIT, UCLA, NATO Countries: USA, UK Corporations: IBM, CBS, NPR, CNN, ITT Famous people: LBJ, FDR, JFK, MLK Very familiar objects: TV, VCR, CD-ROM Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: AIDS, HIV, HTML, IQ
Use of an Indefinite Article	Rule: If you need to use an indefinite article before an acronym or initialism, use the initial sound of the word (not necessarily the initial letter) to guide your choice.
Return to top or post contents	a DoD an http a MoMa an ETA a CIA a TV a VCR an AIDS a FEMA a BYOB an NSA
Acronyms as Grammar
Apronym	Definition: A special kind of acronym where the initials spell out a word or phrase relevant to the expanded version.
Return to top or post contents	ACME A Company Manufacturing Encouragement ALOETTE A Lovely Objective, Essence To Try, Everyone AMTRAK Another Metro Train Rolls Along Keenly AT&T Attention! Thervice Thaved! BE Bankrupt Enterprise BECHTEL Big Engineering Contracts Hardened “Threat-Ending” Line BORDERS Books (Obviously), Records, DVDs, Even Refreshments Sold PEPSICO People Employed Peddling Sugar In Carbonated Offerings SEARS Stock Everything Americans Regard Salable Definition and examples courtesy of Apronyms.
Backronym	Definition: A newly created phrase to fit an already existing word, name, or acronym. It either creates a memorable name or is a fanciful explanation of a word’s origin that may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. If a backronym helps you remember the word acronym or backronym, then it is also a mnemonic. The word backronym itself is a portmanteau of backward and acronym. A.k.a. bacronym, apronym, reverse acronym, retronym
Return to top or post contents	SPECTRE Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion GROSS Get Rid of Slimy girlS LISA Local Integrated Software Architecture BASIC Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code SOS Save Our Ship Ford Fix Or Repair Daily SPAM Something Posing As Meat Definition and examples from Oxford Dictionaries.
Anacronym	Definition: A backronym that becomes more popular than the original acronym.
Return to top or post contents	snafu situation normal, all fucked-up radar Radio Detection And Ranging Definition and examples courtesy of NetLingo.
Pure Backronym	Definition: The original word was not previously or commonly known as an acronym or abbreviation.
Return to top or post contents	acronym Acronyms Condense Representations Of Neologisms You Memorize Because the word “acronym” itself is not an acronym, the phrase is a “pure” backronym (Backronym).
Recursive Backronym	Definition: Recursive backronym – a backronym that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands.
Return to top or post contents	Acronym It Was . . . . . . and Became a Recursive Backronym PHP Personal Home Page PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
Replacement Backronym	Definition: A phrase back-formed from an existing initialism or acronym that is originally an abbreviation with another meaning. Replacement backronyms are very popular as derogatory backronyms.
Return to top or post contents	Acronym Original Meaning Replacement Backronym ASL American Sign Language Age/Sex/Location FIAT Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino Fix It Again Tony First In All Trouble IBM International Business Machines Idiots Built Me ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network It Still Does Nothing NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration Need Another Seven Astronauts Never Absolutely Sure of Anything Never A Straight Answer NSA National Security Agency No Such Agency NTSC National Television System Committee Never Twice the Same Color Never The Same Color OS/2 Operating System/2 Half of an Operating System PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People Eating Tasty Animals POS Piece Of Shit Point of Sale Parent Over Shoulder PS/2 PlayStation 2 Piece of Shit 2 RSVP Répondez s’il vous plaît Respond to Sender Via Post Respond So Very Promptly SAAB Svenska Aeroplan Aktie Bolag Sex Assigned at Birth SUV Sport Utility Vehicle Stupid Ungainly Vehicle
Mnemonic Backronym	Definition: They are replacement backronyms created for the purposes of education, simply making it easier for people to remember.
Return to top or post contents	ROY G. BIV red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet GUMPS Gas-Undercarriage-Mixture-Propeller-Seatbelts CAN SLIM Current earnings Annual earnings New product or service Supply and demand Leader or laggard? Institutional sponsorship Market Direction PAVPANIC Pronouns Adjectives Verbs Prepositions Adverbs Nouns Interjections Conjunctions
Contrived Acronym	Definition: An acronym deliberately designed to be especially apt for the thing being named by having a dual meaning or by borrowing the positive connotations of an existing word or to avoid a name considered undesirable.
Return to top or post contents	CAN SPAM Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing CAPTCHA Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart USA PATRIOT Act Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act fcuk French Connection United Kingdom CLIT CLaIT Computer Literacy and Internet Technology CCRAP (pronounced “see crap”) Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance (Party) changed their name to “Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance” ANAL ViB Alles nur aus Liebe (All for Love) Verliebt ASSOL ASLS Antonin Scalia School of Law Antonin Scalia Law School TIT TNT Team in Training
Euphonious Acronym	Definition: An acronym to which letters are added or subtracted to produce a pronounceable word.
Return to top or post contents	laser Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation radar Radio Detection And Ranging
Hybrid Acronym	Definition: Has the features of both letter acronyms and syllable acronyms.
Return to top or post contents	JPEG MS-DOS
Immigrant Acronym	Definition: An acronym where foreign words are adopted into English.
Return to top or post contents	RSVP respondez-vous s’il vous plait gulag Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii Gestapo GEheimSTAatsPOlizei (Secret State Police)
Internet Slang	Definition: Informal initialisms and acronyms used as a phrase replacement on social media, websites, and text messages.
Return to top or post contents	LOL laugh out loud OMG omigod IMO in my opinion BRB be right back NSFW not safe for work ROFLMAO rolling on floor laughing my ass off You can find a lot more examples at Internet Slang.
Macronym	Definition: An acronym in which one or more letters stand for acronyms themselves. Such macronyms can be multiply nested with one acronym drilling down to another and then another and . . . A.k.a. nested acronym
Return to top or post contents	XHR XML HTTP Request “XML” is “eXtensible Markup Language “HTTP” stands for “HyperText Transfer Protocol” POWER Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing VHDL VHSIC Hardware Description Language VHSIC stands for “Very High Speed Integrated Circuit” XSD XML Schema Definition XML stands for “eXtensible Markup Language” SECS SEMI equipment communication standard SEMI stands for “Semiconductor equipment manufacturing industries” AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL stands for “America Online” HASP Houston Automatic Spooling Priority “spooling” was an acronym — “simultaneous peripheral operations on-line” RARS Regional ATOVS Retransmission Service OR “Regional Advanced Television Infrared Observational Satellite Operational Vertical Sounder Retransmission Service” ATOVS is “Advanced TOVS” TOVS is “TIROS operational vertical sounder” TIROS is “Television infrared observational satellite”. Definition and examples courtesy of Wikipedia: Acronym.
Obsolete Acronym	Definition: An acronym or abbreviation that is not used anymore or has been replaced with a different name.
Return to top or post contents	WAS Full Name IS ORA Office of Research and Applications NOAA A/S/L? Age/sex/location? BBS Bulletin board system ICQ An online chat program and messaging system. Examples courtesy of Bustle.
RAS Syndrome	Short for redundant acronym syndrome syndrome (being intentionally redundant, it is itself an example of self-referential humor).
Return to top or post contents	Definition: A type of “pleonasm that uses one or more of the words that make up an acronym in conjunction with the abbreviated form, thus in effect repeating one or more words. Using a double acronym in this way is considered poor style when writing to persuade, impress, or avoid criticism, even though they are common in speech. A.k.a. PNS syndrome, PIN number syndrome syndrome, personal identification number number syndrome syndrome, RAP phrases, redundant acronym phrase phrases, redundant acronym
	RAS Syndrome the first “syndrome” in the “S” is redundant PIN number the “N” in PIN stands for “number” ATM machine the “M” in ATM stands for “machine”
Recursive Acronym	Definition: An acronym that refers to itself because an existing ordinary acronym is given a new explanation of what the letters stand for, or a name is turned into an acronym by giving the letters an explanation of what they stand for, in each case with one of the letters standing recursively for the whole acronym. A.k.a. recursive initialism, self-referential acronym
Return to top or post contents	GOD GOD Over Djinn from Douglas Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid EPT “Education for Particular Task”, which later morphed into “Eptification for Particular Task” from John Brunner’s Stand On Zanzibar GNU Gnu’s Not Unix! Pine Pine Is Not Elm MINCE MINCE is not complete EMACS PHP PhpLanguage TheGimp “The Gimp Image Manipulation Program”, but now is “The GNU Image Manipulation Program’.” Pine program for internet news & email Examples courtesy of Recursive Acronym.
Mutually Recursive Acronym	Definition: A chain of recursive acronyms and their meanings.
Return to top or post contents	GNU Hird “GNU’s Not Unix! Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth” GNU Hurd “Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons” Definition and examples courtesy of GNU Hurd.
Syllable Acronym	Definition: An abbreviation usually formed from initial syllables of several words. A.k.a. syllable abbreviation, syllabic abbreviation
Return to top or post contents	Interpol International police Benelux A political-economic union of three countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg FORTRAN Formula Translation Sunoco A merging of Sun Company, Inc. and Sun Oil Co. Conrail Consolidated Rail Company Amtrak “America” + “trak” Calexico “California” + “Mexico” RoSPA Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Technology Acronym	Definition: Initialisms and acronyms in common and current usage by members of the Information Technology community and used to discuss LAN, internet, WAN, routing and switching protocols, and their applicable organizations.
Return to top or post contents	RAM random access memory IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol ANSI American National Standards Institute CAT category (cable) CPU central processing unit LAN local area network Definition and examples courtesy of List.
Three-Letter Acronym	Definition: Acronyms which use three letters.
	AAA American Automobile Association FTC Federal Trade Commission BBB Better Business Bureau DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse DOA dead on arrival

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Formatting Tips by exploring its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Word Confusions, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Acronyms & Initialisms

“Acronym List.” Oxford Dictionaries. Nov 2015. Web. n.d. <http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/backronym-list>.

“Backronym.” NetLingo. n.d. Web. n.d. <http://www.netlingo.com/word/backronym.php>.

English, Jason. “56 Acronyms and Initials All Spelled Out.” Mental Floss. 24 Apr 2013. Web. n.d. <http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/50272/john-green-defines-every-acronym-ever?utm_source=MegaList&utm_campaign=f89a9e115e-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email>. Just for fun, watch John Green’s on acronyms and initialisms

“GNU Distributions Running Hurd.” Wikipedia. n.d. Web. n.d. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Hurd#GNU_distributions_running_Hurd>.

“List of Information Technology Initialisms.” Wikipedia. n.d. Web. n.d. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_information_technology_acronyms>.

Peters, Lucia. “Remember These ’90s Internet Acronyms?” Bustle. 12 Nov 2015. Web. n.d. <https://www.bustle.com/articles/123402-7-internet-acronyms-only-90s-kids-understand&gr;.

“Recursive Acronym” 16 Apr 2010. Wiki.c2. n.d. <http://wiki.c2.com/?RecursiveAcronym>.

“Types of Acronyms.” All Acronyms. n.d. Web. n.d. <https://www.allacronyms.com/aa-types-of-acronyms#ixzz4U53BH5kS>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

This infographic from “What’s Your Acronym IQ?” by Wpromote is courtesy of Visually.