ICYMI (in case you missed it), acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms are ways to shorten phrases and ideas both in normal speech and through texting and email. But a common FAQ (frequently asked ...

I read with some amusement the letter from John Neumeyer regarding the use of acronyms in the literature without identifying their meaning (C&EN, March 30, page 2). I used to believe that any ...

Q: What exactly is an initialism? Is that like an acronym? A recent Hotline column used an “initialism,” but I’ve never heard of that before. A: The difference between an “initialism” and an “acronym” ...

I often remove unwieldy acronyms from articles I'm editing. The writer might assume that all readers know that acronym, but that often isn't so. Webster's New World College Dictionary defines an ...

Are you confused with Internet language? Did you know ‘SMH’, for example, has been so pervasive, it has managed to cement its place in the online Oxford dictionary. The company analysed the number of ...

Initially, I didn't think I could say a lot about acronyms. I was wrong. An acronym uses the first letters of a few words to form a new word. The purpose is to shorten a long string of words to one ...