What is an Acronym?
An acronym is a word formed from the initials of words in a phrase, such as NATO ['neyto] from North Atlantic Treaty Organization or "scuba" from "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus." It is often used to include abbreviations but abbreviations are not all pronounceable words. "YDC" is an abbreviation, not an acronym.
Back to English Grammar & Style
Other Resources You Might Enjoy
- The 100 Funniest Words in English What are the words that always get a smile?
- The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English Words for those special moments, poems, letters, or any other writing where beauty counts.
- Rebel-Yankee Test If you liked the dictionary, you would probably enjoy taking Rebel-Yankee Test as much as the 5 million people who have already taken it.
- Glossary of Rhyming Compounds Some of the funniest words in English are rhyming couplets like sing-song, willy-nilly, and dilly-dally. Learn more about them here.
- Glossary of Eponyms Words that come from the names of people.
- Phobias, Philias, and Manias Here they all are. Of course, new ones are made up every day.
- Paraprosdokians Garden path sentences that lead us in the wrong direction.
- Parsiflage: When insults had class
- Glossary of Folk Etymology Foreign words we change to sound more like English.
