An acronym is a word made of the first letter of each word in a phrase--a longer name or title, for instance. "MADD" stands for "Mothers Against Drunk Drivers", for example. When the initials (the first, or "initial" letters ) of the phrase make a word, or something that can be pronounced as a word, that is an acronym. When the initials do not make a word that we recognize, we usually just say each letter, as in "USA".
"AIDS" is an acronym for "acquired immune deficiency syndrome."
"PTSD" doesn't spell a word, or what can be pronounced as a word, so we just say each letter--P--T--S--D--when we see it written down. It stands for "post-traumatic stress disorder".
"PIN" is an acronym for "personal identification number". It is read just like the word, "pin".
"ATM" stands for "automatic teller machine", but we have to say each letter---A--T--M.
No comments:
Post a Comment