{"id":5156,"date":"2015-01-01T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T07:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writehouse.org\/?p=619"},"modified":"2015-01-01T08:00:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T07:00:55","slug":"subtle-distinctions-abbreviation-versus-acronym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/subtle-distinctions-abbreviation-versus-acronym\/","title":{"rendered":"Subtle Distinctions: Abbreviation versus acronym"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>

Image credit: Plrinternetmarketing.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Lawyers should possess semantic exactitude- we should appreciate subtle distinctions between words or expressions that look or sound alike.<\/p>\n

In this issue, we explain the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym.<\/p>\n

An abbreviation is \u201cthe shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole.\u201d (Merriam-Webster). <\/p>\n

AMCON<\/em>, AU<\/em>, UK<\/em>, and USA<\/em> are abbreviations for Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria<\/em>, African Union<\/em>, United Kingdom<\/em>, and United States of America<\/em>, respectively.<\/p>\n

An acronym is an abbreviation pronounceable as a word. An acronym is typically formed from the first letters of each (main) word in a phrase. All acronyms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are acronyms. Some acronyms evolve into words, no longer merely pronounceable as words. <\/p>\n

AMCON<\/em> is an acronym because you can say it as a word (without mentioning the component letters). AU<\/em>, UK<\/em>, and USA<\/em> are not acronyms\u2014you have to say each letter. Merriam-Webster erroneously lists FBI<\/em> as an acronym; it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

CEO<\/em> is abbreviation for Chief Executive Officer. CEO<\/em>, the abbreviation for Chief Executive Officer<\/em>, is not an acronym\u2014it\u2019s not pronounceable as a word: you have to say each letter. <\/p>\n

Sonar<\/em> is the acronym for s<\/strong>ound n<\/strong>avigation and r<\/strong>anging<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Because they are pronounceable as words and formed from the first letters of the constitutive words, AIDS<\/em> and NATO<\/em> are acronyms (for A<\/strong>cquired I<\/strong>mmune D<\/strong>eficiency S<\/strong>yndrome<\/em> and N<\/strong>orth A<\/strong>tlantic T<\/strong>reaty O<\/strong>rganisation<\/em>). <\/p>\n

And because they are not pronounceable as words (you have to say each individual letter), AU<\/em>, NYPD<\/em>, and UN<\/em> are not acronyms\u2014they are abbreviations for A<\/strong>frican U<\/strong>nion<\/em>, N<\/strong>ew Y<\/strong>ork P<\/strong>olice D<\/strong>epartment<\/em>, and U<\/strong>nited N<\/strong>ations<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Laser<\/em> is the acronym for L<\/strong>ight A<\/strong>mplification by S<\/strong>timulated E<\/strong>mission of R<\/strong>adiation<\/em>, but the words by<\/em> and of<\/em> have not contributed their initial letters to the acronym.<\/p>\n

Acronyms do not take full stops. Write AIDS<\/em> not A.I.D.S<\/em>. Strictly, abbreviations that are not acronyms need full stops, but you can dispense with full stops when writing well-known abbreviations with all capitals. So write AU<\/em> instead of A.U<\/em>., though both are correct. Prefer NWLR<\/em> to N.W.L.R.<\/em> for Nigerian Weekly Law Reports. USA<\/em> is better than U.S.A<\/em> for United States of America<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To pluralize an abbreviation or acronym, do not add an apostrophe before the s.<\/p>\n

\tWrong: \t 15 NGO\u2019s were invited to bid for the rural health fund. <\/em>
\n Correct: 15 NGOs were invited to bid for the rural health fund<\/em><\/p>\n

In American English Dr<\/em>., Mr<\/em>., and Mrs<\/em>. take full stops, but not in British English. Our dialect of English in Nigeria is British, so write Dr<\/em>, Mr<\/em>, and Mrs<\/em>, without full stops. The v in case titles should not take a full stop: Stabilini Visinoni v Federal Board of Inland Revenue<\/em>. And it\u2019s v, not vs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers should possess semantic exactitude- we should appreciate subtle distinctions between words or expressions that look or sound alike. In this issue, we explain the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym. An abbreviation is \u201cthe shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole.\u201d (Merriam-Webster). AMCON, AU, UK, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[166,167,100,130,168,98,135],"class_list":["post-5156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-write-partner","tag-abbreviation","tag-acronym","tag-chinua-asuzu","tag-legal-writing","tag-subtle-distinctions","tag-the-write-house","tag-the-write-partner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}