This document defines acronyms and compares them to other types of abbreviations. It states that an acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of other words, such as NATO or laser. Abbreviations may omit letters from the middle or end of words. The document provides examples of acronyms pronounced as words or letters, and discusses orthographic styling and changes to acronyms' meanings over time. It also notes how acronyms are used in non-English languages that use characters rather than letters.

1. ACRONYM
Presented by: Yaira Molinar
3-740-2494
José Pinto
8-874-1331

2. DEFINITION
• An acronym is a word or name formed
as a type of abbreviation formed from
the initial components of the words of
a longer content such as of a name or
phrase

3. NOMENCLATURE
• Whereas an abbreviation may be any type of shortened form, such as words
with the middle omitted (for example, Rd for road or Dr for Doctor), an
acronym is a word formed from the first letter or first few letters of each word
in a phrase (such as sonar, created from sound navigation and ranging).
• There is no special term for abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the
combination of letter names and words or word-like pronunciations of strings
of letters.

4. COMPARING A FEW EXAMPLES OF EACH TYPE
• Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters
• NATO
• Scuba
• Laser
• GIF
• Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letters
• Amphetamine: "alpha-methyl-phenethylamine"
• Gestapo: Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)
• Radar: "radio detection and ranging"
• Pronounced as a string of letters, containing syllable-initial but not necessarily word-initial
letters
• PMN: "polymorphonuclear leukocytes"
• OCA: "oculocutaneous albinism"
• PCM: "paracoccidioidomycosis"

5. • Pronounced as a word or as a string of letters, depending on speaker or context
FAQ: (/fæk/ or ef-a-cue) "frequently asked questions"
IRA: When used for "individual retirement account", can be pronounced as letters (i-ar-a) or as a word
/ˈaɪrə/
SQL: (/ˈsiːkwəl/ or ess-cue-el) "structured query language"
• Pronounced only as a string of letters
BBC: "British Broadcasting Corporation"
OEM: "original equipment manufacturer"
USA: "United States of America"
VHF: “Very high frequency”
• Pronounced as a string of letters, but with a shortcut AAA:
(Triple-A) "American Automobile Association"; "abdominal aortic aneurysm"; "anti-aircraft artillery";
"Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración"
(Three-As) "Amateur Athletic Association"
IEEE: (I triple-E) "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers"

6. ORTHOGRAPHIC STYLING
• Showing the ellipsis of letters
• In the case of most acronyms, each letter is an abbreviation of a separate word and, in
theory, should get its own termination mark. Such punctuation is diminishing with the belief
that the presence of all-capital letters is sufficient to indicate that the word is an
abbreviation.
• Ellipsis-is-understood style
• Some influential style guides, such as that of the BBC, no longer require punctuation to show
ellipsis; some even proscribe it
• Pronunciation-dependent style and periods
• For example, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage recommends following each
segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in "K.G.B.", but not
when pronounced as a word, as in "NATO".[The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is
reflected graphically by the punctuation scheme

7. CHANGES TO (OR WORD PLAY ON)
THE EXPANDED MEANING
• Some apparent acronyms or other abbreviations
do not stand for anything and cannot be
expanded to some meaning. Such pseudo-
acronyms may be pronunciation-based, such as
"BBQ" (bee-bee-cue), for "barbecue", or "K9"
(kay-nine) for "canine". Pseudo-acronyms also
frequently develop as "orphan initialisms"; an
existing acronym is redefined as a non-
acronymous name, severing its link to its previous
meaning. For example, the letters of the "SAT", a
US college entrance test originally dubbed
"Scholastic Aptitude Test", no longer officially
stand for anything.

8. NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGES
In English language discussions of languages with syllabic or logographic writing
systems (such as Chinese and Korean), "acronyms" describe the short forms that take
selected characters from a multi-character word.
• For example, in Chinese, "university" (大學/大学, literally "great learning“
Many aspects of academics in Korea follow similar acronym patterns as Chinese,
owing to the two languages' commonalities, like using the word for "big" or "great"
i.e. dae (대), to refer to universities (대학; daehak, literally "great learning" although
"big school" is an acceptable alternate). They can be interpreted similarly to American
university appellations such as, "UPenn" or "Texas Tech.