initialism

Noun
  1. A word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word (synset 107106330)
    "`NATO' is an initialism for North Atlantic Treaty Organization"; "the word `scuba' is an acronym for s(elf)-c(ontained) u(nderwater) b(reathing) a(pparatus)"
    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
    is a type 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
    same as: acronym
  2. An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced separately (synset 107106112)
    "HTML is an initialism for HyperText Markup Language"
    is a type of: abbreviation - a shortened form of a word or phrase

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