Acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed as a type of abbreviation formed from the initial components of the words of a longer content such as of a name or phrase, often with individual initial letters, as in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus),
sometimes syllables, as in Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), or a mixture of the two, as in radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging), and sometimes with the letters of the acronym needing to be pronounced individually as with uses of AA (including in connection to various Automobile Associations and for Alcoholics Anonymous).
There are no universal standards for the multiple names for such abbreviations or for their orthographic styling. Acronyms result from a word formation process known as blending, in which parts of two or more words are combined to form a new word.
Acronyms flourished especially from the 20th century onwards; the distinction between abbreviation and acronym has been steadily eroded and acronym is commonly used for several types of abbreviation.
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