Intro to acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms
Scene: you’re at a boardroom meeting or yet another minglefest when suddenly the person talking to you drops some letters right in the middle of their sentence- expecting you to pick them up as if you know what they’re talking about.
They keep talking, but there you are holding a handful of letters that you don’t know what to do with, and you’re looking around for a trash can or an open window and all you can think is ‘if only that genius Marwan at SSS had written some sort of near-comprehensive list of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms that are used extensively throughout the startup community, so I can keep up with all this industry jibberjabber’.
Well, you can thank me immediately because here is a near-comprehensive list of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms that are used extensively throughout the startup community, so you can keep up with all this industry jibberjabber.
But first, here are some definitions to refresh your memory (source):
1. Abbreviation = any shortened form of a word. Examples: abbr., tech., Inc., and app.
2. Acronym = made from the first letter (or letters) of a string of words but are pronounced as if they were words themselves. Examples: hazmat, NASA, laser, and SUP46.
3. Initialism = made up of the first letter (or letters) of a string of words, but can’t be pronounced as words themselves. Examples SEB, www, RSVP, and HTML.
Pro-tip: if you ever need a refresher just (bookmark this page and) Ctrl+F or Cmd (⌘)+F your way to wisdom!
Feel free to include any I may have missed in the comments below so they can be added to the growing repository.
Read the entire article here