Acronyms are today’s hieroglyphics . . . we can read them but we actually don’t know
what they mean. Or something like that. Take this fun Blue Avocado-created quiz on 26 nonprofits that are better known by their acronyms than by their full names . . . click here to play! (In some cases there is more than one acceptable choice.)
According to Meriam-Webster an acronym can also be just letters that cannot be pronounced as a word. If FBI counts, then so should ACLU and NAACP. Michael K.
Thank you for making this very interesting point! You're right; technically it's not an acronym unless it can be pronounced as word (which, for instance, isn't true for ACLU or NAACP, the first two in the quiz). Thanks for pointing this out! I am kind of persnickety about words so I enjoy this kind of distinction. Jan
First, many of these aren’t acronyms (ie, letters that can be pronounced as a word). They are simply initials (ie, letters that cannot be pronounced as a word)..
And those are known as Initialisms.