INITIALISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does initialism mean? 

• INITIALISM (noun)
  The noun INITIALISM has 2 senses:

1. a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word

2. an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced separately

  Familiarity information: INITIALISM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INITIALISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

acronym; initialism

Context example:

the word 'scuba' is an acronym for s(elf)-c(ontained) u(nderwater) b(reathing) a(pparatus)

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced separately

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

HTML is an initialism for HyperText Markup Language

Hypernyms ("initialism" is a kind of...):

abbreviation (a shortened form of a word or phrase)