An acronym is a combination of the initials or a part of a phrase. Some famous acronyms are - POTUS (President of The United States), IKR (I Know Right)
2. An acronym is a combination of the initials or a part of a
phrase. Some famous acronyms are - POTUS (President of
The United States), IKR (I Know Right)
Most social media users are familiar with acronyms, and
backronyms, or at least with the usage of these two. Not
only for the internet, but we also use acronyms frequently
in writing, speaking, texting, and most notably, short-
hand writing.
3. What is an acronym?
At the first glance, an acronym might look like a combination of initials (or, first
letters) of contextually related words. But it’s best to call these types of
combinations initialisms rather than acronyms.
Then what is acronym?
An acronym is a comparatively pronounceable word that might be a
combination of initials or a part of a phrase.
One of the most recognizable English acronyms is probably “WWW” which
stands for “World Wide Web”.
4. Types of Acronyms
There are two types of acronyms
– formal and casual.
Formal acronyms are used in
formal documents. Usually, you
will notice that formal acronyms
are written in capital letters and
followed by their full forms in
parentheses.
BCC (Bling Carbon Copy)
Dept. (Department)
ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival)
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations)
Fig. (Figure)
HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act)
NASA (NationalAeronautics and Space Administration)
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
PTO (Please Turn Over)
UNICEF (United Nations InternationalChildren’s
Emergency Fund)
Some examples of formal acronyms
in the English language:
5. Casual acronyms are used in more
informal situations such as in casual,
semi-casual texting, speeches, and
writing.
Most of the time, there won’t be any
explanation of these casual acronyms
since these words are usually written
while keeping in mind that the audience
already knows the meaning of the
acronym.
6. Some examples of casual acronyms
in the English language:
FYI – For your information
IMO – In my opinion
IKR – I know right
ILY – I love you
IMHO - In my humble opinion
LOL – Laughing out loud
7. Since the popular social media platform, Twitter allows 280
characters per tweet, many Twitter users have found themselves in
word limit restrictions. As a solution, they use acronyms to express
their opinions and feelings within a word limit.
To express one’s feelings/opinion within limited
words/characters
Why do people use acronyms?
8. • People often use acronyms as a form of secret code to hide the
real meaning from the unwanted audience.
• Children, especially teenagers use acronyms while interacting
with their friends to hide their content’s meaning from their
parent’s watchful eyes.
To hide the content meaning
• People have become relatively lazy these
days and they use acronyms to save their
time and energy while expressing
themselves.
Laziness
9. • Some phrases are long and
harder to pronounce,
especially if you have to
repeat the phrases frequently.
Acronyms provide a great
solution to use these phrases
by giving a short and easily
pronounceable form.
To make something
easily pronounceable
10. In journalism and taking class
notes
While taking lots of information within a short time, either
you can write at a very fast speed, or use acronyms to write
easily. In the journalism profession, or in taking class notes,
people apply the usage of acronyms to note information
easily and quickly.