Today's Idiom  

ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations are shortened forms of a written word, phrase or name used in place of the whole, for example:  ‘Dr.’ for Doctor, ‘Mr.’ for Mister, ‘gym’ for gymnastics, 'Tim' for Timothy, p.s. for post script. Abbreviations are found in almost every area of life.
Acronyms and initialisms are also abbreviations.

ACRONYMS

An acronym is created from the initial letters of a long name or phrase, and pronounced as a word, for example, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
Since are acronyms are treated as words and pronounced as words, there are no full stops between the letters.

INITIALISMS

An initialism is a sort of acronym where a long phrase is abbreviated to its initial letters but the letters are pronounced individually, for example, FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
In British English, full stops are not usually used between each letter (FBI rather than F.B.I.)
In American English, it is a question of style. The use of full stops (or periods) is more common in American English. (F.B.I. rather than FBI)

Examples of abbreviations:

ABBREVIATIONS	MEANING
A.D.	Anno Domini
ad	advertisement
adj.	adjective
adv.	adverb
a.m.	ante meridiem (before noon)
app	application
B.C.	Before Christ
e.g.	exampli gratia (for example)
etc	etcetera (and other things; and so on)
flu	influenza (an illness)
i.e.	id est (that is)
in.	inch(es)
lb(s).	pound(s) (from the Roman 'libra')
n.b.	nota bene (note well; take notice)
oz	ounce(s)
pl.	plural
p.m.	post meridiem (after noon)
p.s.	post scriptum (written after)
p.t.o.	please turn over
rhino	rhinoceros
St.	Saint or Street

Examples of acronyms:

ACRONYMS	MEANING
AIDS	Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
LASER	Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
NAFTA	North American Free Trade Agreement
NASA	National Aeronautical and Space Administration
NAFTA	North American Free Trade Agreement
NASA	National Aeronautical and Space Administration
OPEC	Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
PIN	Personal Identification Number
RAM	Random Access Memory
ROM	Read Only Memory
Radar	Radio detecting and ranging
Scuba	Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
UNICEF	United Nations Children's Fund
WASP	White Anglo Saxon Protestant
WYSIWYG	What You See Is What You Get

Examples of initialisms:

INITIALISMS	MEANING
AC	Air Conditioning
CD	Compact Disk
CCTV	Closed-Circuit Television
CV	Curriculum Vitae (resume)
DVD	Digital Video Disk
EAP	English for Academic Purposes
EFL	English as a Foreign Language
EFL	English as a Second Language
ELT	English Language Teaching
EU	European Union
FAQ	Frequently Asked Questioins
FBI	Federal Bureau of Investigation
FM	Frequency Modulation
GMT	Greenwich Mean Time
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTML	Hypertext Markup Language
IQ	Intelligence Quotient
ISBN	International Standard Book Number
JPEG	Joint Photographic Experts Group
NBA	National Basketball Association
PC	Personal computer
RIP	Rest in Peace (from the Latin, "Requiescat In Pace")
RSVP	Repondez S'il Vous Plait (from French, meaning: 'please respond')
UN	United Nations
UK	United Kingdom
USA	United States of America

See also: Business abbreviations

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