Acronym

An acronym is a type of abbreviation where you make a word from a phrase or sentence. You make this word by taking the first letter of each word in the original phrase or sentence. Then, you pronounce it like it’s a new word on its own – you don’t sound out each letter individually.

For example, AIDS is an acronym. Even though it stands for “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome”, we pronounce it like it’s a word on its own. However, HIV is not because we say the letters individually. Instead, it would count as an initialism.

Sometimes, acronyms might skip the less important words, such as:

• the
• a
• an
• to
• for
• of

However, this is not always the case. Since you need to pronounce acronyms as words in their own right, you might keep one of these less-important letters if it helps you to say the word easier.

Some common acronyms you might hear are:

• POTUS (President Of The United States).
• FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
• CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults).
• HoD (Head of Department).
• Originally, laser was an acronym (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). However, now we accept it as its own word.
• NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
• S.H.I.E.L.D from Marvel (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division)

When it comes to common words on the internet like “lol”, people are more likely to treat them like acronyms. That doesn’t stop some people from treating them like initialisms and saying each letter individually, though!

You pronounce all of these abbreviations like they are words in their own right. That’s what makes them acronyms. For “laser”, it became so accepted that we don’t even know it’s an acronym!