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Acronym (view source)

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~~nuts~~

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An '''acronym''', is an [[abbreviation]] coined from the initial letter of each successive word in a term or phrase (compare [[initialism]]). For example, [[NATO]] for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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In most cases, acronyms are capitalized, but after long use the abbreviation becomes a word in its own right and is spelled with small letters, like

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''[[SCUBA]]'', '''S'''elf '''C'''ontained '''U'''nderwater '''B'''reathing '''A'''pparatus (now ''scuba'').

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In general, an acronym made up of more than the first letter of the major words in the expanded form is rendered with only an initial capital letter (Comsat from Communications Satellite Corporation; an exception would be NAM from Nonaligned Movement).

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Hybrid forms are sometimes used to distinguish between initially identical terms ([[ICC]] for International Chamber of Commerce and ICCt for International Criminal Court).

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==See also==

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*[[Initialism]]

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[[Category:Linguistics]]

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[[Category:Dictionary]]

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[[Category:Acronyms]]

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