Types of Acronyms and Abbreviations

  • Anacronym - is a backronym that became a replacements of other acronym that have become obsolete acronym and not used anymore.
  • Alphabetism - same as initialism or initial acronym. Also alphabetism may refer to special approach or sometimes discrimination (usually of companies) on the basis that the name is an initialism.
  • Backronyms (same as bacronym) - is a phrase which is constructed backwards from some word (usually initialism).
    • Pure backronym - happens when the original word was not previously or commonly known as an acronym or abbreviation.
    • Recursive backronym - a backronym that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands.
    • Replacement backronym - is formed when the original word is an initialism or acronym with different meaning
    • Mnemonic backronym - all of them are Replacement backronyms and are created for the purposes of education.
  • Euphonious acronym - an acronym where letters are added or subtracted to produce a pronounceable word. e.g. lazer (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging)
  • Immigrant acronym - is an acronym where foreign words are adopted into English. e.g. RSVP
  • Initialisms - an acronym where each letter stands for a separate word. Each letter is pronounced separatelly.
  • Initial acronym - same as Initialisms.
  • Hybrid acronym - acronym that has the features of both letter acronyms and syllable acronyms. e.g. JPEG or MS-DOS
  • Letter acronym - same as Initial acronym or Initialisms.
  • Nested acronym - an acronym where one of the letters represents another acronym. e.g. AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)
  • Obsolete acronym - an acronym or abbreviation that is not used anymore or has been replaced with a different name
  • Redundant acronym - a phrase of an acronym/abbreviation and a word(s) which make up an acronym as well as the phrase itself, thus in effect repeating the part of acronym twice.

    Typical examples: PIN Number, ATM Machine, VIN number, RAM memory, LCD display, LED diode, ISBN number

  • Recursive acronym (same as recursive initialism) - is an acronym which refers to itself in the expression for which it stands. e.g. VISA standing for Visa International Service Association
    • Mutually recursive acronym - the chain of Recursive acronyms and their meanings. e.g. GNU Hurd or GNU Brain
  • Self-referential acronym - same as Recursive acronym
  • Syllable acronym or Syllable abbreviation - A syllabic abbreviation (SA) is an abbreviation formed from (usually) initial syllables of several words, such as Interpol for International police
  • Three-Letter Acronyms (TLA's)- acronyms which use three letters
  • HTML acronym and abbreviation tags - <acronym> and <abbr> HTML tags

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