acronym

  1. Noun.  An abbreviation formed by (usually initial) letters taken from a word or series of words, that is itself pronounced as a word, such as ''RAM'', ''radar'', or ''scuba''; sometimes contrasted with initialism.
  2. Noun.  A pronounceable word formed from the beginnings (letter or syllable) of other words and thus representing the phrase so formed, e.g. Benelux = the countries Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg considered as a political or economic whole.
  3. Noun.  Any abbreviation so formed, regardless of pronunciation, such as ''TNT'', ''IBM'', or ''XML''.

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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.