What is an acronym?

• A. A word formed from the initial letters of each word in a phrase
• B. A shortened form of a word
• C. The main root word
• D. The word part at end of root word

Answer: (A)

An acronym is a word created from the initial letters of the words in a phrase and is spoken as a single, pronounceable word. For example, NASA comes from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and scuba comes from self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. This is different from simply shortening a word into an abbreviation, which isn’t necessarily formed from the initial letters of a phrase. It also isn’t about the root word or a suffix, which are parts of a word’s structure rather than ways to form new words from multiple terms. Note that some letter-by-letter forms (like FBI) are read as individual letters and are called initialisms, not acronyms.