| / English Dictionary |
INITIALISM
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced separately
Example:
HTML is an initialism for HyperText Markup Language
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("initialism" is a kind of...):
abbreviation (a shortened form of a word or phrase)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word
Example:
the word 'scuba' is an acronym for s(elf)-c(ontained) u(nderwater) b(reathing) a(pparatus)
Synonyms:
acronym; initialism
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("initialism" is a kind of...):
descriptor; form; signifier; word form (the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something)
Domain member usage:
snafu (an acronym often used by soldiers in World War II: situation normal all fucked up)
MPEG (a set of standards adopted by the moving pictures experts group for the compression of digital video and audio data or a file of data compressed according to those standards)
DINK (a couple who both have careers and no children (an acronym for dual income no kids))
weakly interacting massive particle; WIMP (a hypothetical subatomic particle of large mass that interacts weakly with ordinary matter through gravitation; postulated as a constituent of the dark matter of the universe)
NIMBY (someone who objects to siting something in their own neighborhood but does not object to it being sited elsewhere; an acronym for not in my backyard)
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