[language, English]



In writing, an abbreviation is any shortened form of a word or phrase. Note, however, that there are types of abbreviations; the most common being acronyms and intialisms. acronym - (a type of abbreviation)

A word formed from the initial parts (letters OR syllables OR arbitrary parts) of a name.

Examples: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)





- (a type of abbreviation) A formed from the initial parts (letters OR syllables OR arbitrary parts) of a name. Examples: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) initialism - (a type of abbreviation)

A group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter being pronounced separately .

For example, "BBC" (British Broadcasting Corporation), or "PBS" (Public Broadcasting System). The key difference between an acronym and an initialism is that an acronym forms a new word, while an initalism does not.

For example, you say "nay-to" for NATO; this means you are saying a word, as opposed to saying each letter (ehn-ay-tee-oh).

So "NATO" is an acronym. But "U.K." is an intialism for United Kindom: you say each letter individually (you don't say "yuk", so you know it's not a word). Also, the periods are a dead-giveaway that's it's an intialism... There are other types of abbreviations as well. Consider, for example, the truncation.... truncation - (a type of abbreviation)

An abbreviation of a word consisting only of the first part of the word.

Most often used in a context (such as for mail) where certain words must be written (and read) repetitively.

Examples: Tues. = Tuesday; Dec. = December; Minn. = Minnesota; Eur = Europe, European

So, here's your first test: "HTML": abbreviation, acronym, or initialism? Well, it is an abbreviation, because it's a shortened form of "Hyper-Text Markup Language".

But it's not an acronym, because it's not a word! (You can tell, because you don't say "heh-teh-mehl"; you say "aych-tee-ehm-ehl".)

And it is , as you may have guessed, an intialism, for the same reason it's not an acronym (you pronounce each letter separately). Update: I saw a question online recently where someone was wondering if 'initialism' is a "real word." While its current use (as a type of abbreviation) may be recent, the word has been around for a long time. Here is a dated and confirmed use from the Oxford English Dictionary [1] (under the entry for "Initialize"): initialism, the use of initials; a significative group of initial letters.

1899 R. Thoma in N. & Q. 9th Ser. III 103/1 "In my 'Handbook' I gave an initialism of Mr. Watt's, 'P.P.C.R.'"

(But in the interest of full disclosure, they did tag it as a 'nonce-wrd.') Update: a theoretical styling of these elements using CSS for spoken ( text-to-speech ) web pages: CLASS: abbreviation

SUB-CLASSES:

- abbr.acronym {speak : normal;} (...say it as a word... )

- abbr.initialism {speak : spell-out;} (...say each letter seperately...)

- abbr.truncation {speak : spell-out;} (...say each letter seperately... )

